Cheb Nacer

Pure party-fuel raï x Euro-dance hybrids from ‘90s Morocco, including darija Arabic covers of ‘Barbie Girl’ and Venga Boys plus a riff on a Robert Miles’ classic...

An absolute bit of kit, this, from Cheb Nacer, a mainstay of mid-late ‘90s Maghreb dance-pop with a mean line in flipping Eurodance mega smashes that he heard on TV channels 2M and RTM. Primed for weddings or whatever cause you have to celebrate, it’s pure fire from the upfront call-and-reponse version of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ (perhaps our 2nd fave after Carl Stone’s ‘Flints’ cut-up) in ‘Olé…Olé… Olé…’ to the play on Robert Miles ‘Children’ in ‘Malou Malou’, thru an original fusion of Eurodance donk and raï drum breakdowns in ‘OK OK’, and the Venga Boys’ ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom!!’ transplanted over the Med from Benidorm to Oujda.