Ali Amran: Between roots and horizons
He comes from a village clinging to the mountains, where the wind still carries the old songs. As a child, Ali made his first guitar from pieces of wood. He doesn’t know it yet, but this simple gesture opens a path that will never stop expanding. At the University of Tizi-Ouzou, the stage becomes his learning territory. The words take shape, the music asserts itself. Very quickly, his songs carry the voice of a generation: one that wants to stay true to its roots while looking the world straight in the eye.
Exile to France marks a turning point. Paris offers him space, but also doubt. He plays in modest venues, persists, refines his style. His guitar mixes folk, rock, blues and pop, and his lyrics explore identity, freedom, exile and the aspirations of a youth on the move.
Today, Ali Amran continues to surprise and bring people together with his music. His latest single, Dihin axir (2025), a duet with singer Melissa Sekhi, caused a sensation and quickly spread among the public. The title, poetic and profound, evokes the difficulty of departure and the hope that pushes young people to leave their country to seek a better life « over there » – a universal theme on exile, family and the price of dreams to pursue far from home.
Each album and each new song consolidates a universe that only resembles itself. Without artifice, Ali Amran modernizes Kabyle song with disconcerting sobriety. His melodies – limpid and direct – give pride of place to lucid, poetic, sometimes melancholy, but always deeply human lyrics.
On stage, he doesn’t look for effect – he tells, shares and brings people together. Today, Ali Amran stands at the crossroads: artist of his time, witness to a heritage, builder of a bridge between Kabylia and the contemporary world. His music continues to move forward, driven by the same simple conviction: a song can still light the way.