souad massi tour

SOUAD MASSI

NEW ALBUM • ON OCTOBER 14TH 2022

Sequana is the tenth album from the Franco-Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi. If her music was previously coloured with folk and chaabi, the sound palette broadens here as far as the Sahel, the Caribbean and Brazil, and on some tracks ventures into rock. Souad Massi has completely renewed her musical team, opening a new chapter in a career that began in the 1990’s and was marked by her departure from Algeria for France. With Justin Adams (Rachid Taha, Tinariwen, Robert Plant…) on production, accompanied on some tracks by the likes of Piers Faccini and Naïssam Jalal , Souad Massi continues on her path as a committed, liberated woman. She is a woman of her time, who sings like never before about the causes close to her heart.

Listen to the first single 'dessine-moi un pays':

Listen to the second single 'une seule étoile':, new concert in paris :, folies bergères - january 30th, 2024, privacy overview.

• {{ index + 1 }} {{ track.track_title }} {{ track.album_title }} {{ track.lenght }} {{getSVG(store.sr_icon_file)}} {{button.podcast_button_name}}
• {{getSVG(store.sr_icon_file)}} {{store.song_store_name}} {{store.podcast_button_name}}

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Souad Massi: Sequana review – an outstanding return to form

(Backing Track/Wrasse) The Franco-Algerian singer’s 10th album spans genres and moods to potent effect, with glittering production from Justin Adams

A fter exile from her Algerian homeland (her crime: being a political singer), Souad Massi enjoyed international success with her early solo albums, Raoui (2001) and Deb (2003). A poetic singer-songwriter in the western mould, Massi was further influenced by Arabic and French sounds. Her charm has never vanished, but later albums have underwhelmed. She is in outstanding form here , with strong songs that recall her early work and a gifted producer, Justin Adams – guitar lieutenant in Robert Plant’s band – to bring them into varied life.

Opener Dessine-moi un pays (Draw Me a Country) is steeped in north African influences, with a swaying string quartet, but later comes chanson, rock, bossa nova, American folk, all with a fluid backdrop of chiming, chattering guitars from Adams. Massi herself is in troubled but stoical mood. The title cut expresses anguish for the plight of today’s adolescents, imploring the Seine’s goddess to help them. The pain of broken romance runs deep on Ciao Bello and Ch’Ta, but in L’Espoir, hope springs eternal. Mirage is a Saharan trance about exile – “my wounds will never heal” – that finds redemption on a duet with guest Piers Faccini. Massi’s Arabic version of Trent Reznor’s Hurt aches more than the song deserves.

• Pop and rock
• The Observer
• album reviews

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Souad Massi Tour Dates and Upcoming Concerts

Frequently asked questions about souad massi, is souad massi on tour, how many upcoming tour dates is souad massi scheduled to play, when does the souad massi tour start, what venues is souad massi performing at, 2024 tour dates:.

Literature and Arts from the Center of the World

The Artist at Work—a Conversation with Souad Massi

Souad Massi in a live performance during her latest tour, at Montpellier's Opéra house (photo Jordan Elgrably).

Souad Massi is touring Europe with her new album for the rest of the year. Check her schedule at souadmassi.com for tour dates and tickets. Her sold-out Montpellier concert was coproduced by Caravan Arabesques , a project of Unison out of Montpellier which supports Arab cultural arts performances and education throughout the region and beyond.

Jordan Elgrably

Souad Massi is a free spirit and a wildflower. Like a Forget-me-not or a Dame’s Rocket, she thrives in both hot and cool climates, high up in mountains at the height of her singing career or in the low flatlands, during Covid. Like a botanical chameleon she adapts to sun or shade, and the metaphor isn’t arbitrary; if you look at the cover of her new, post-Covid album, Sequana , there are daisies in Souad’s eyes.

“I love all wildflowers,” she says during our conversation just before a concert she gave in Montpellier while on tour. “I think people are a little mean to these wildflowers and plants. They pull them out, like weeds. And what I love about these plants is that they grow back every time. And for me, it’s a symbol of resistance.”

A symbol of strength for millions of fans and followers, Massi has fought the patriarchy and the male-dominated music scene throughout her career as a singer-songerwriter. She’s been a vocal artist and composer for more than half her life, from her beginnings in Algeria to her international career based in Paris, where she’s raising two daughters with her husband and manager, Mohammed Abdel. She’s also been a resistance fighter for women, for justice, and she’s not shy about saying it, for universal love.

During the pandemic, Massi says, “At first I was like everyone else, very anxious.” She nourished herself by reading a lot, returning to one of her favorite texts, Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet , poetry that she says imparts “universal love that nourishes me.” She also listened to a great deal of classical music and jazz and, “It may sound weird, but I listened to a lot of nature sounds, water, and lots of birds…in nature I find a little glimmer of hope.”

Sequana is her first album since Oumniya in 2019. Its 11 songs range from the powerful balads “Dessine-moi un pays” and “Dib El Raba” to the beautiful and hopeful “Ch’ta.” The album, for Massi, is about “regeneration.”

“Sequana is the Gallic goddess of healing. And there’s a place along the Seine, where people, in the past, went to pray and to use the water to heal themselves. And what struck me [reading about it] was the doctors who went there, would bathe their tools in the water to do surgery, especially eye surgery.”

Without exaggeration, the wildflowers of Sequana represent Souad Massi’s lifelong desire for freedom. In her song “Dessine-moi un pays” (“Draw me a country”), she sings in Arabic for truth and freedom, talking about the harga , the illicit journey braved by North Africans crossing the sea in search of a better life. Massi sings, “The blood of freedom runs in my veins.” It’s a theme that you find throughout her work.

“I am a person who does not like injustice and who has suffered injustice on different scales and at all ages, especially towards women, for example, or towards certain ethnic groups. I am of Kabyle origin; I have seen the racism towards the Amazigh, for example, in Algeria, or towards black people — I had friends from Africa who came to study in Algeria and I felt this racism.

“We don’t talk about it much back home, but there are a lot of problems, and these are things that revolted me. In fact, I was raised in a family that loves music and hates injustice. It’s in the blood.”

British music producer and guitarist Justin Adams, who worked with Massi in Paris while recording her album last year, had long been a fan. Adams, who has performed with such diverse artists as Sinead O’Connor and Rachid Taha, happened to catch Massi’s recent performance at London’s Barbican where, he says, “It was great to see the way Souad connected with the audience and who the audience was, people who are sort of  third culture individuals , you know — if you’re born in one country, and your parents might be from two different cultures, and then you might move to another country, so you’ve already got this kind of [broader] cultural awareness, or consciousness. People like that kick back against narrow minded nationalism. Souad speaks to people who want to value their cultures and who might not come from a strictly white western culture can kind of dominate in the digital world.

“I think Souad has had such a huge impact as a woman from a Muslim country, just really standing up and being her own individual voice. She’s been a role model for women all over and I love the way she’s refused to be limited by her background. She is so obviously deeply involved in culture, musical culture and otherwise, but also, she’s completely open and knowledgeable about all forms of music, including American country and rock. She’s got a kind of broad take, which is just about her self expression and songwriting.

“I admire her as an artist who has one foot in a Muslim country,” Adams continues, “and in a culture from the Maghreb, and in an Amazigh tradition, and yet who on the other hand, confidently takes on a Trent Reznor song with a reference to the Johnny Cash version, or who can quote, Latin American rhythms. It’s a global thing, which is just so many people’s reality these days.”

WORKING WITH A MASTER

With Souad Massi often being the only woman — and the only Arab woman — in the recording studio and on stage, the potential for miscomprehension and discord is obviously a concern, but Adams’ experience was exemplary.

Working with her was easy, he says; they got along famously. “And she’s got a wonderful kind of calm confidence. I think her songwriting comes from a very genuine, soulful place, and she’s a natural musician. I particularly love the way that she sort of steers her way through what is a pretty macho world. She’s got this kind of gentle, slightly humorous way of just going, okay — I’m surrounded by a lot of [dominant] males; not to overstate it, but there’s a colonial kind of racist thing going on in the background. And Souad just calmly pushes through that. She is absolutely her own person with her own vision.”

DOING IT HER WAY

As legend would have it, Massi fled Algeria in the ‘90s during the country’s violent decade, but she wants to set the record straight during this conversation. She did not leave for Paris in 1999 because of death threats.

“It would be a lie to tell you that,” she says. “I did leave Algeria but at the time I was working in an engineering consulting firm. I had just graduated. I’m an urban planner by training. I was very happy to earn my first salary. It wasn’t much, but then [as a performer] I was invited to a festival in Paris, Women of Algeria, which took place at the Cabaret Sauvage , and it went very well, and I stayed afterwards.”

She didn’t exile herself for fear of being snuffed out in Algeria, but because she felt less like a fish out of water in Paris with her eclectic musical choices. Souad Massi was an innovator early on, melding her native raï and chaabi traditions with American rock and folk, and singing in Arabic, Kabyl and French. For a while she sang with the pioneering Algerian hardrock group Atakor. And yet despite having already achieved some success in Algeria, she says, “I still felt like an extraterrestrial with the style that I made my own, mixing Algerian and American folk and rock, with world music elements.”

Her Cabaret Savage performances didn’t go unnoticed and she soon signed a contract with Universal Music’s Island-Mercury. Two years later, in 2001, she issued her first album, Raoui (storyteller), which was a hit with the critics.

One wonders whether Souad Massi feels at home in France, in view of the frequent tensions that are exacerbated by the country’s right-wing, anti-immigrant demagogues, or does she feel like a nomad?

The artist pauses thoughtfully before slowly replying. “I’ll tell you: both. I feel a little bit nomadic because I travel a lot and it’s wonderful to be able to travel. And at the same time, I feel at home in the hearts of people who are good. I don’t know if this speaks to you.”

I tell her that what she’s saying reminds me of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s line about how “People’s hearts are their passport.”

Massi nods, “I think we are at home when we are bien entouré , in good company. I feel more at home when I am with beautiful people.”

MASSI AS A SYMBOL OF FORTITUDE

Souad Massi the artist is versatile and multiform, at once Kabyle, Algerian, Arab, woman, mother, artist, activist. Her diversity is her wealth, but one wonders about the challenges of managing a complex identity. Is it ever a burden?

“It is a wealth, it is a treasure,” she replies. “Is it a burden? No, on the contrary, it is a gift, which allows us to evolve, to have a certain consciousness to be able to communicate with other people. I think, in relation to young people, to young girls, for example, and here I’m talking about the Maghreb or Middle East, we become in spite of ourselves a symbol, and we must always try to live up to our potential and not to disappoint. It is a responsibility, I would say.”

Since 2005, Massi has worked with the UN as an ambassador for women in Africa. It’s a cause to which she remains completely committed today. “It was a really beautiful mission for me to be the sponsor of the microcredit project that gave opportunities to women in Africa to set up their small projects. And at the moment, I am the sponsor of an association called The Fund for Women in the Mediterranean that you can see on the internet. It is a magnificent association that trains associations across the Mediterranean, everywhere, to train women to raise awareness against violence against children and women, to make them more independent in several areas.”

As much as Massi would like to return home to Algeria to spend time with her family, she remains wary and sad — sad “that I cannot go home…[because] I was one of the first artists who supported the hirak protests. And as well because of some of [the lyrics of] my songs.”

Massi has a massive fan base across the Arab world and Europe, and many admirers in the United States, but unfortunately, she hasn’t toured the US as much as she would like.

“My reluctance to go touring in the United States,” she explains, “is due to the fact that I don’t like the way we’re questioned. I don’t like the way we are equated with terrorists or terrorism. This is something that really revolts me, I who suffered from fundamentalism in Algeria, I find it really unfair. And unfortunately, the rise of racism and xenophobia is a phenomenon that has evolved at the same time in Europe. I have the impression that it is as if there is a general roadmap: every time there is an election, an enemy must be created. And the enemy is the other, the one who does not speak the same language as us. And that can become very dangerous.”

Massi is the sort of artist you’d like to invite over for dinner, not only because you know she’d get along with your friends, but because she has a thoroughly calming effect on those around her. Even as she performed live on stage at Montpellier’s Opéra, rocking a dozen songs with her quintet of master musicians, Massi conveyed calm, beauty and majesty in every composition. She sang an homage to freedom covering Johnny Cash and among the songs in her repertoire was a number dedicated to the Iranian women risking their lives for the “Woman Life Freedom” movement. At times Massi sang with a mesmerizing chant like a gnawa singer, mixing a mystical vibe with a rock rhythm, channeling a bit of Rachid Taha (bless his ghost). Massi’s performance felt authentic and flawless throughout.

The next time I come across wildflowers on my walks around the city and through the nearby countryside, I’ll be thinking of her.

What a great singer. The quality of her voice is such that it is enough for her to accompany herself on the guitar.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment.

<strong data-cart-timer="" role="text"></strong>

Souad Massi

By using this site, you agree to our  Privacy Policy  and  Terms & Conditions  which describe our use of cookies.

Reserve Tickets

Review cart.

You have 0 items in your cart.

Your cart is empty.

Keep Exploring Proceed to Cart & Checkout

Donate Today

Support the performing arts with your donation.

To join or renew as a Member, please visit our  Membership page .

To make a donation in memory of someone, please visit our  Memorial Donation page .

• Custom Other

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player
• Hip-Hop 50 @ The Tiny Desk
• Tiny Desk Home Concerts
• Tiny Desk Contest

Souad Massi: Tiny Desk Concert

Anastasia Tsioulcas

Credit: NPR

"Every one of us has a story in his heart... Storyteller, tell us stories to make us forget our reality. Leave us in the world of once upon a time."

So go some of the lines from "Raoui" ("Storyteller"), the opening song in this Tiny Desk Concert with Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi. Performing in a mix of North African Arabic, Berber and French, Massi has carved out a life for herself as just such a storyteller. Her unflinching, deeply intimate songs — paired with her beautiful, cool light-beam of a voice — belie the struggles she's endured to make her own stories heard.

Born in Algeria to a Berber (Kabyle) family in 1972, Massi grew up in the capital city of Algiers. On her way to rehearsals with her rock band as a teenager, men used to spit at and harass her for wearing jeans and toting a guitar. When civil war erupted in 1992, life became even more dangerous for Massi: After she released her first album, she was targeted for assassination by Islamic fundamentalists.

Rather than bury her dream, Massi held a tight grip on her convictions. In 1999, she was invited to Paris to perform in a "Women of Algeria" festival — and within three days, Universal France had signed her. Now based in Paris, she's since become one of the major musical stars of the Arab world: Massi has sold hundreds of thousands of albums across Europe and North Africa, and in 2006 won the prestigious BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music.

What's perhaps most amazing about Massi is that, while her music — and her identity as an artist — puts her in direct opposition to many forces at work in her native country, her music isn't self-aggrandizing or shouted from a bully pulpit. Artistically, she's set herself apart, as well; even confessional love songs like "Ghir Enta" ("No One but You") bear little resemblance to the sappy sentiments that dominate Arab pop ballads. There's a trembling note of fragility within: "Now you're by my side," she sings, "But tomorrow, who knows? That's how the world is — sweet and bitter at the same time."

As a composer, Massi embraces everything from soft French chanson to Brazilian tropicalismo to Congolese soukous to the innately multicultural rhythms of her native Maghreb. Those flavors tend to come out most fully when she's backed by her band, but you can still feel the North African undercurrent which propels her song "Amessa" ("A Day Will Come").

In spite of the great tenderness Massi displays in this solo set, you can't forget about her steely, inner core — the one that brought her to her full life as an artist. "There are people who lament over their destiny, people who cry on their own tombstones while they are still alive," she sings in "Le Bien et le Mal" ("The Good and the Evil"). "There are people who grow old before their time. We're fed up with this life."

• "Raoui" (Storyteller)
• "Ghir Enta" (No One but You)
• "Amessa" (A Day Will Come)
• "Le Bien et le mal" (The Good and the Evil)

Producer: Anastasia Tsioulcas; Editor: Michael Katzif; Videographers: Nick Michael and Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Photo by Becky Lettenberger/NPR

• Souad Massi

Souad Massi

View all concerts, nov 23, 2023.

Find a place to stay

Upcoming concerts from similar artists.

Le Grand Rex

Café de la Danse

Departmental Estate of Sceaux

Rock En Seine

Salle Pleyel

Bandsintown Merch

Live Photos

What fans are saying.

Share Event

About the venue.

Souad Massi Biography

• Popular artists in Paris
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Paris concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Deutsch Português
• Concerts near you
• Popular artists

Saturday 09 December 2023

Souad Massi

Discover more in Paris

5, rue Édouard-Poisson 93300 Aubervilliers, France

Similar artists with upcoming concerts

Additional details.

Doors open: 20:30

Share this concert

Related upcoming events.

• Sunday June 16, 2024 Dhafer Youssef Festival de jazz de Sceaux, Sceaux
• Saturday July 13, 2024 Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour New Morning, Paris
• Thursday November 28, 2024 Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien, Ballaké Sissoko, and Vincent Ségal Salle Pleyel, Paris
• Tuesday January 21, 2025 Orange Blossom La Cigale, Paris

• Most popular charts
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.