Nass El Ghiwane

Nass El Ghiwane are a Moroccan musical group formed in Casablanca between the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the working-class neighborhood of Hay Mohammadi. Regarded as among the most innovative figures in contemporary North African music, they sparked a genuine aesthetic and cultural revolution, redefining the role of popular song in postcolonial Morocco.

Their debut album, Nass El Ghiwane (1973), stands as the manifesto of this turning point: a work that fuses Sufi traditions, popular repertoires (Gnawa, malhoun, aita) and a powerful rhythmic foundation built on instruments such as the guembri, bendir and banjo.

In the years that followed, the group consolidated their success with further releases and a vast output on vinyl and cassette, helping spread a style that would go on to influence hundreds of groups across the Maghreb.

A central element of their poetics is the use of darija, the Moroccan dialect, elevated to an artistic and political language: through lyrics rich in metaphors, proverbs and references to oral culture, Nass El Ghiwane became the voice of the working classes during the "years of lead," marked by repression and disillusionment.

Even today the group is regarded as a symbol of Moroccan collective memory, able to combine spirituality, protest and cultural identity in a profoundly original musical form.