Biography
Zohra Al Fassiya was a Moroccan singer and lyricist, one of the pioneers of modern Arabic music, the first female artist recorded in Morocco. She was called the queen of melhoun and gharnati music
Born in 1905 in Sefrou, near Fez, to a poor Moroccan Jewish family, she began singing at a very young age performing religious songs in her synagogue. In her youth she began singing in cafes and cabarets in cities near Fez and later in Casablanca. Her songs were mostly of the gharnati genre (Andalusian Arabic songs, very popular among Muslims of Andalusian origin) and melhoun, which are long Moroccan poems.
In the 1940s, she had her own orchestra and began writing her own songs. It was featured heavily on radio stations, both in Morocco and Algeria, and was extremely well known and loved by the public. She collaborated with many famous artists such as Samy Elmaghribi, who wrote some of her songs. She released more than 17 albums between the years 1947-1957.
Al Fassiya's Jewish identity did not cause her any problems in Morocco during her great fame and until 1960. In 1962 she immigrated to Israel, like many other fellow Jews who fled Arab countries due to the increasing persecution after its establishment state of Israel.
Despite being a superstar in Morocco and North Africa, her talent went unrecognized in Israel outside of the Moroccan immigrant community, as state media and cultural institutions preferred to promote Western music. As with many Mizrahi / Sephardi Jewish immigrants (Jews from Arab and Islamic countries), Al Fassiya faced discrimination in Israel. She came to live in lonely, impoverished conditions in Ashkelon, singing at private celebrations (such as weddings) in Israel's Moroccan community. Although her songs were mostly secular in nature (which was the popular music of the time in Morocco), many of the melodies were later modified to also fit religious Jewish liturgical songs (called piyyutim).
In her last years she lived forgotten in a nursing home. She died aged 89 in 1994.