The late Ibrahim El Alami was an art school in its own right. He was passionate about folklore and used its rhythms in many of his songs, which were also influenced by oriental singing. This gave him a unique style that set him apart from the other artists of his time.
Ibrahim El Alami is also considered one of the founders of modern Moroccan song and one of its pioneers, along with Ismail Ahmed, Fwiteh, Maati Belkacem and musician Ibrahim Rachidi.
He was born in the 1930s in the medina of Casablanca, before his family moved to Derb al-Sultan where he grew up. He began his career in teaching, but turned away from it because of his passion for singing and music. He played the flute, then the lute, after that.
He began his career in the 1940s as a musician in a Casablanca group led by Haj Mohamed Zniber, before joining the radio and becoming conductor of his orchestra in 1967.
El Alami was a complete artist. In addition to his talent as a singer and musician, he also wrote and composed the lyrics to his songs, the most famous of which is “Ya Nassi”, which has been covered by many singers over the years with different distributions, thus reinforcing its immortality.
El Alami, who comes from a “shurafa” family, began his artistic career by performing the songs of Oum Kelthoum and Mohammed Abdel Wahhab, under the encouragement of his older brother, the artist and musician Mohammed Aziz El Alami, who worked with the Algerian artist Salim Halali, at Le Coq d’Or, the legendary cabaret he owned in Casablanca.
Thanks to his brother who was a lover of Andalusian music, but also to his grandfather who was passionate about music and Malhoun, Ibrahim El Alami became immersed in a deep artistic culture.
El Alami retired from the world of singing in the 1980s and died in 2000, leaving behind him a repertoire full of songs as successful as the others and that has been covered by generations of artists to this day.
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