Khaled - خالد

Khaled Hadj Brahim, known simply as Khaled (and in his early years as Cheb Khaled), is an Algerian singer widely regarded as the «King of Raï». Born in Oran, a city that gave rise to the raï tradition, he began recording as a teenager in the late 1970s, blending the region's folk instrumentation with brass, synthesizers and Western pop structures. Through the 1980s he became one of the genre's defining voices, helping raï evolve from a local Algerian style into an internationally recognized sound.

Khaled's global breakthrough came after he relocated to France and signed with a major French label, where producers Don Was and Michael Brook helped shape the polished, dancefloor-ready sound that carried his 1992 album to worldwide attention. The single «Didi» became a hit across North Africa, Europe and beyond, and «Aïcha», written with Jean-Jacques Goldman, turned into one of the best-known French-language songs of the 1990s, cementing his crossover appeal far outside the Arabic-speaking world.

Across a career spanning decades, Khaled has continued releasing albums that mix romantic and socially conscious lyrics with raï's rhythmic drive, working with a range of producers while staying rooted in the genre he helped popularize. Songs such as «Abdel Kader», «Bakhta» and «C'est la vie» reflect both his early raï roots and his later pop sensibilities, and he remains one of the most recognized ambassadors of Algerian music internationally.