“Rébétiko-Malouf” residency by Nidhal Yahyaoui
2020-2021
L'Art Rue
Nidhal Yahyaoui, vocals
Outail Maaoui, violin
Charis Tsalpara, piano-vocals
Ioannis Niarchos, guitar, bouzouki, vocals
Wafa Ammeri, collaborating with Nidhal Yahyaoui
Mohamed Hédi Belkhir, technical director
Philippe Meletios Pappas, Videographer
L’Art Rue
The "Rébétiko-Maalouf" residency in Athens (Greece) in January 2022 is supported by the Onassis Foundation.
Our warmest thanks to the Greek Embassy in Tunis.
A sensitive musician and singer who has been working on Tunisian popular music for years, Nidhal Yahyaoui is in artistic residency at L'Art Rue from October 2020 to February 2021 and then in Athens January 2022 accompanied by Greek musicians Ioannis Niarchos, Charis Tsalpara and Tunisian violinist Outail Maaoui.
In 2015 Nidhal Yahyaoui discovered Rébétiko, a genre of Greek music which appeared in Greece in the 1920s and is very similar to the Tunisian Malouf of that same period. For him it was a revelation. In 2020, in residence at L'Art Rue, Nidhal Yahyaoui finally achieves his dream of artistically bringing these two types of Mediterranean music together. In collaboration with Greek musicians, and from the repertoire of Greek Rébétiko music intertwined with Tunisian music of the same period, he weaves new sounds; and both voices, as well as languages of the Mediterranean intermingle in a rare harmony. After three stints of artistic residency lasting several months, "Rébétiko-Malouf" was born, a musical work thar is the fruit of combining two types of music with such similar sonorities and real emotional density.
Practical information
From November 2020 to February 2021
And in Jabnuary 2022 in Athens