Rachid Gholam

Career

Raised in a conservative family, he left school early to devote himself to music and later went on to study the Islamic sciences. He trained himself by listening to the great names of Arabic music and practising the Eastern maqamat, began performing as a teenager in the mid-1980s and appeared on Moroccan television at the age of 13.

In 1995 he founded an artistic production company, Al-Duha, and has led a choir of more than thirty voices. His albums, among them Ya Jamalan, Mawajid, Arij al-Tayyib fi Madh al-Habib, Hida' al-Ruh and the Al-Layla al-Muhammadiyya series, are devoted to sama' and praise of the Prophet. He has sung in Tunisia, Egypt and several European countries, where he is popular with the Arab diaspora, while his exposure in the Moroccan media has remained limited.

Public stance

Close to the Al Adl wal Ihsane movement and opposed to the monarchical system, he saw several of his concerts banned in Morocco during the 2000s and in 2007 was sentenced by the court of first instance in El Jadida to one month in prison and a fine. On 16 June 2017 he publicly announced that he was leaving the movement.