Opening Concert: Souad Massi featuring Youssoupha

It wasn’t written in the stars that Souad Massi would become a well-known songwriter. Born in 1972, she grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Algiers; she listened to Arabic pop music on the radio and to Western rock. Flamenco entered her life, and she sang in a metal band. In doing so, she defied social norms and was threatened by fanatics. In one song, she describes Algeria as a beautiful woman, bound and silenced. One could read this as a self-portrait: When she performed at a festival in France in 1999, singing melancholic, poetic songs, she was celebrated. She stayed. Album after album followed, blending chanson with Arabic soundscapes, folk, rock, and jazz. Her story has also made Massi a political role model—a woman who, against all odds, forges her own path, crosses musical and geographical boundaries, and undermines patriarchal structures through her actions. She has risen to megastar status not only in France. At her Enjoy Jazz, she will be joined by the French-Congolese rap star Youssoupha.

A pre-concert talk will take place at 7:30 p.m.