I had a nice chat via email with Lamine at Bahdja Market, the great online Algerian grocery here in Ottawa – I’ve picked up pastries and some snacks from there and really enjoyed them! Lamine gave me some neat suggestions for Algerian content to explore, particularly classical music:

There are a couple of styles (Hawzi from Tlemcen, West of Algeria), Andalusi (Andalusian heritage of the Muslim rule in Spain, a heritage shared also with the Sephardic Jews of Spain), Nouba (a type of Andalusian music), Malouf (Constantine Classical music, East of Algeria).

Here is the diva of Andalusian music currently in Algeria:

And a virtuoso of Malouf music from Constantine. This guy is apparently making history in his musical genre.

Mok Saib is also very popular in Algeria. He lives in England. This song was viewed by 122 million people.