Editing Lounès Matoub (section)

==Musical career==
[[File:Lounès Matoub 1975.JPG|thumb|Matoub with his [[Algerian mandole]] in 1975. He was an Algerian singer of Kabyle music.]]

Matoub began his singing career under the patronage of the established singer [[Idir (singer)|Idir]].<ref name=":1" /> He recorded his first album ''Ay Izem'' (The Lion) in 1978; it was a phenomenal success. He went on to record 36 albums,<ref name=":0" /> as well as writing songs for other artists.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} He gave his first major concert in April 1980, at the time of the "Berber Spring" protest movement in Kabylia.<ref name=":1" />

His music mixes Algerian Andalucian [[Chaabi]] orchestration with politicized [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]] ([[Tamazight|Berber]]) lyrics,<ref name=":1" /> and covers a broad variety of topics including the Berber cause, democracy, freedom, religion, Islamism, love, exile, memory, history, peace and human rights. Unlike the [[Amazigh|Berber]] poet/musicians who preceded him, Matoub's lyrics were direct and confrontational towards the Algerian government and those who stood against his principles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=David |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Eyes_to_the_South/HjPzey0Y7yEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=direct%20and%20confrontational%20matoub&pg=PA536&printsec=frontcover |title=Eyes to the South: French Anarchists and Algeria |date=2011 |publisher=[[AK Press]] |isbn=978-1-84935-076-1 |pages=536 |language=en}}</ref> Fellow musician Mohamed Alileche recalls:<ref>{{cite web |title=Berber Rising! |url=http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/112/Berber+Rising! |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020702022437/http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/112/Berber%2BRising%21 |archivedate=2 July 2002 |publisher=Afropop Worldwide}}</ref>

{{quote|quote=He went straight. He criticized a president. He mentioned the president of [[Algeria]] right in the beginning of his career. He goes black and white. He was very, very clear in his songs, and he is the only singer &ndash; not only Algeria, but in all of North Africa &ndash; who criticized the government and criticized clearly. He would never get afraid.}}

Despite being banned from Algerian radio and television during his life, Matoub became, and remains, an extremely popular [[Kabyle people|Kabylian]] singer.