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| Albert Rouimi aka Blond Blond |
Back in Oran, he became known as l’Ambianceur for his unique style of singing and his staccato-like spoken word that interspersed his music. While Blond Blond could make an audience laugh there was also no doubt that he was truly a master musician with significant technical knowledge. He was fluent in the Andalusian repertoire, nailed it in French, commanded chaabi (especially the musical styling of Lili L’abassi) and pioneered the Francarabe style, a mixture of French chansons and Arabic chaabi.
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| Blond Blond. Kouftanek Mahloul et El Bonco Hannouka. Dounia. #1278. 1970s |
Thanks to Phocéephone for this great digitization of Blond Blond’s El Bonco – Hannouka below. Notice that Blond Blond quickly switches languages at the beginning of the track and will do so throughout including when he sings about Hanukkah. Listen carefully at the beginning when he sings, “le mazal c’est la chance.” Mazal is Hebrew for luck.
Blond Blond - El bonco Hannouka by AbiâdBlond Blond was one of the few Jewish Algerian musicians that performed in Algeria post-independence and gave two memorable performances at the Koutoubia music hall in Algiers in 1970 and 1974. Blond Blond, l’Ambianceur, died in 1999 at the age of 80.
Happy Hanukkah to everyone and please make sure to spread this around.