North African music
Algeria Music of Algeria Algerian music is virtually synonymous with raï among foreigners; the musical genre has achieved great popularity in France, Spain and other parts of Europe. For several centuries, Algerian music was dominated by styles inherited from Al-Andalus, eventually forming a unique North African twist on...	Arabic
Egypt Music of Egypt The music of Egypt has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians credited one of their Gods Thoth with the invention of music, which Osiris in turn used as part of his effort to civilize the world...	Bedouin Bedouin music Bedouin music is the music of nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula,the Sudan and the Levant. It is closely linked to its text. Songs are based on poetry and are sung either unaccompanied, or to the stringed instrument, the rebab....
Libya Music of Libya Various kinds of Arab music are popular in Libya such as Andalusi music, locally known as Ma'luf, Chabi and Arab classical music.The Tuareg live in the southern, Saharan part of the country, and have their own distinctive folk music. There is little or no pop music industry. Among the Tuareg,...	Berber Berber music The Berber people is the indigenous and major ethnic group inhabiting North Africa and part of West Africa . Berbers call themselves "imazighen"...
Morocco Music of Morocco The music of Morocco ranges and differs according to the various areas of the country.-Berber folk music:There are three varieties of Berber folk music: village and ritual music, and the music performed by professional musicians....	Tuareg
Tunisia Music of Tunisia Tunisia is a North African country with a predominantly Arabic-speaking population. The country is best known for malouf, a kind of music imported from Andalusia after the Spanish conquest in the 15th century...	Western Sahara Music of Western Sahara Sahrawi music shares much in common with neighbouring musical traditions such as those of Mauritanian and southern Moroccan. The Tbal is the basic instrument of percussion, though the traditional string instrument called Tidinit, has largely been replaced by electric guitar.The first Sahrawi music...
See also: Mauritania Music of Mauritania The music of Mauritania comes predominantly from the country's largest ethnic group: the Moors. In Moorish society musicians occupy the lowest caste, iggawin. Musicians from this caste used song to praise successful warriors as well as their patrons. Iggawin also had the traditional role of...  - Eritrea Music of Eritrea Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa. Perhaps the most famous Eritrean musicians in history are Eng. Asghedom W.Micheal, Bereket Mengisteab, Yemane Baria, Osman Abderrehim, Alamin Abdeletif & Atowe Birhan Segid, some of whose music were banned by the Ethiopian government in the 1970s...  - Ethiopia Music of Ethiopia The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of Ethiopia's ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. Some forms of traditional music are strongly influenced by folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia. However, Ethiopian religious music also has an...  - Sudan Music of Sudan Sudan has a rich and unique musical culture that has been through chronic instability and repression during the modern history of Sudan.Beginning with the imposition of strict sharia law in 1989, many of the country's most prominent musicians and poets, like poets Mahjoub Sharif, were imprisoned...  - Islamic

North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 has contributed much to popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

, especially Egyptian

Music of Egypt

The music of Egypt has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians credited one of their Gods Thoth with the invention of music, which Osiris in turn used as part of his effort to civilize the world...

 classical and el Gil, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n raï

Raï

Raï is a form of folk music that originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s....

 and Moroccan

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 chaabi. The broad region is sometimes called the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

 (excluding Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

), and the term Maghrebian music is in use. For a variety of reasons, Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

 and Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 do not have as extensive a popular tradition as their neighbors on both sides. Folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, however, abounds, despite frequent condemnation and suppression from governments, and exists in multiple forms across the region—the Berbers

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

, Sephardic Jews, Tuaregs and Nubia

Nubia

Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...

ns, for example, retain musical traditions with ancient roots.

Andalusian music is especially influential, and is played in widely-varying forms across the region. This music was imported from Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

 in the 15th century, after Spain expelled the Moors from that province. The Spanish conquest of the historically Muslim Iberian peninsula had been going on for some time, and had the result of moving a large number of Iberian Muslims, who were themselves descended from people from across the Mediterranean, into North Africa. These people brought with them a vibrant tradition that had arisen as a fusion of various kinds of Muslim music from Baghdad, Istanbul, Egypt and elsewhere. The most well-known derivatives of this style are al-âla

Andalusian classical music

Andalusian classical music is a style of Moorish music found across North Africa in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It originates out of the music of Al-Andalus between the 9th and 15th centuries....

 in Morocco, nuubaat

Nuubaat

Nuubaat is a form of Algerian classical music. The term itself is the plural form of nūba , a suite of old Andalusian musical pieces. It is these multi-movement works that give nuubaat its name. The music originally spread from Islamic Spain to North Africa following the Christian Reconquest of...

 and related styles in Algeria and malouf

Malouf

Malouf may refer to:* Maalouf , the family surname.* Music of Tunisia* David Malouf, an Australian writer...

 in Tunisia.

Algeria

Out of all the North African countries, Algerian popular music may be best-known abroad. Raï

Raï

Raï is a form of folk music that originated in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds, mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arabic musical forms, which dates back to the 1930s....

, a style of urban popular music developed in early 20th century Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

, has been famous in Europe, especially France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (which has a large Algerian population) since the late 1980s. The music of the Kabylian Berbers and sha-bii are both also renowned throughout the country, and in France.

Descended from music imported from Andalusia in the 15th century, Algerian nuubaat

Nuubaat

Nuubaat is a form of Algerian classical music. The term itself is the plural form of nūba , a suite of old Andalusian musical pieces. It is these multi-movement works that give nuubaat its name. The music originally spread from Islamic Spain to North Africa following the Christian Reconquest of...

 is a kind of classical music that remains popular in much of the country. Over the years, it has evolved into related styles like rabaab and hawzii.

Egypt

Egypt's best-known popular tradition is the classical Egyptian music of stars like Abdel Halim Hafez

Abdel Halim Hafez

Abdel Halim Ali Shabana commonly known as Abdel Halim Hafez , is among the most popular Egyptian and Arab singers and performers. In addition to singing, Halim was also an actor, conductor, business man, music teacher and movie producer...

. Other popular styles today include Shaabi, el Gil, and other Egyptian pop.

Tunisia

Tunisia is best-known as the center for malouf

Malouf

Malouf may refer to:* Maalouf , the family surname.* Music of Tunisia* David Malouf, an Australian writer...

, a derivative of the Andalusian music imported to North Africa in the 15th century. Since the 1930s, a number of organizations (as well as the first President of Tunisia

President of Tunisia

The President of Tunisia, formally known as the President of the Tunisian Republic is the head of state of Tunisia. Tunisia is a presidential republic in which the president is the head of the executive branch of government with the assistance of the Prime Minister of Tunisia, formally the head of...

, Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian statesman, the Founder and the first President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 until 7 November 1987...

) have been promoting malouf as an integral aspect of Tunisian culture

Culture of Tunisia

The culture of Tunisia is a product of more than three thousand years of history and an important multi-ethnic influx. Ancient Tunisia was a major civilization crossing through history; different cultures, civilizations and multiple successive dynasties contributed to the culture of the country...

, helping to keep the ancient tradition alive.