Ya Rayah

"Ya Rayah" (Arabic: يا رايح Yâ râyiḥ) is an Algerian chaâbi song composed and performed in the 1970s by Dahmane El Harrachi (Amrani Abderrahmane). Up until the past 15 years this song was known to be Dahman El Harrachi's original song and in the Chaâbi/Andalous tradition of Algiers. This song is a ballad of the traveler, the exiled, the longing to come back, the immigrant, the "wanderin' star", etc. hence its universal appeal. In 1993, it was also performed by French-Algerian singer Rachid Taha on his second self-titled album. Also in 2003 by Enrico Macias at the Olympia in Paris. Later on Rachid Taha included the song on Carte Blanche (1997) and Diwân (1998). In September 1998, Taha performed the song live with fellow Algerian singers Khaled and Faudel at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France. Their version was induced on the live album 1,2,3 Soleils the following year.

Taha released the song as a single in August 1997 and reached number eleven on the French singles chart. There have been also multiple renditions of El Rayah by different artists in different languages including Hebrew, Indu, Turkish, Greek ("Ki an se thelo" by George Dalaras) and some Balkan languages from the former Yugoslavia. In February 1998, the song was certified silver in France.

In the year 2010, the song was covered as part of an Israeli rap compilation album,TACT. The song's beat was sampled and used in the song Belyby by Booksills, which featured Shlome Shabat.

In January 2012, it was covered again by the Algerian singer Amel Bouchoucha (Fady Bitar & The AB Brothers), using African dance beats and Berber sounds, bringing the song closer to its roots.

The tune of this song was used by Sanjeev Darshan in Bollywood movie Mann (1999) for the song "Kali Nagin Ke Jaisi" sung by Udit Narayan and Kavita Krishnamurthy.