Oudaden (MAR)
Berber Pop
Friday 16th March / Doors at 21:00 / Tickets at the door: 90 kr (70 kr. for students)
Oudaden, one of Morocco’s mythical groups of the last twenty-five years, draws its inspiration from traditional Amazigh music. The group is passionately devoted to its roots, which they update into a lively music that enjoys the support of the Moroccan audience since its early days, while more and more foreign spectators are growing enthusiastic.
The story of Oudaden starts in 1978 in the sunny streets of Bensergao, within a stone’s throw of Agadir. A place where neighbours are united, and that is exactly what the founders of Oudaden are. Playing their own instruments, they draw on the repertoire of the Rways (Berber troubadour singers) which they do not hesitate to modernize, what appears, at the time, as a revolution that immediately makes them stand out and causes several controversies among the traditional Rways.
Between 1979 and 1985, Oudaden is gaining unexpected fame, in a period when Internet doesn’t exist yet, nor CDs, nor Ipods. While they perform at more and more family parties without ever thinking of recording an album, their reputation is growing fast thanks to their new fans that disseminate their music with the technical means of the time: tape recorders, audiocassettes sold under the table… They end up being noticed by a record company, Sawd Al-Maârif, that allows the group to realize their first album in 1985.
Today Oudaden has released 14 albums and toured USA and Europe several times as well as places like Mali, Tanzania, Malaysia and – off cause Morocco.
The music of Oudaden is a clever mix of typical bendir and nakus sounds, these traditional Amazigh instruments that they combine with modern ones like banjo, electric guitar and tam-tam. In their universal lyrics they explore the subtleties of love as well as the economic and social difficulties of their region, being the spokespersons of Amazigh culture.
