Mawazine Festival Sparks Outrage: Moroccan Artists Sidelined as Foreign Stars Cash In Millions

As last year, many Moroccans are calling for a boycott of the Mawazine Festival, which started on Friday in Rabat. Regardless of social tensions and economic crises, the organizers do not skimp on the means to enhance the level of this cultural event. Since its creation, international stars such as Mariah Carey, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez or Whitney Houston have performed on the festival stages, with fees between 5 and 7 million dirhams for a single performance. The Lebanese Haifa Wahbi, who recently participated in the festival, is said to have received a fee of nearly 800,000 dirhams for a concert of less than an hour.

Meanwhile, renowned Moroccan artists such as Zina Daoudia or Tarik Batma receive fees ranging from 40,000 to 70,000 dirhams, a hundred times less than the world-renowned stars. Aymane Serhani, a very popular artist among Moroccan youth, received 400,000 dirhams for his performances on the Mawazine festival stage. In addition to the exorbitant amounts they receive, foreign artists perform on large stages like OLM Souissi. Local artists, on the other hand, are content with smaller stages in Salé or Nahda, rarely broadcast live. A marginal treatment that is harmful to both the artists and the Moroccan public.

This year again, the #BoycottMawazine campaign is in full swing. Internet users denounce these "obscene" expenses in the kingdom where sectors such as health, education or youth employment remain faced with major challenges. "How can we justify paying foreign singers millions, while our rural schools lack tables, our hospitals lack beds, and our young people lack a future?" can be read in a comment on X. Moroccan artists denounce "a cultural caste system" and a lack of investment in the local artistic sector, even if the festival organizers claim that the event generates more than 3,000 direct jobs, 5,000 indirect jobs, and provides a breath of fresh air to the hotel, catering and transport sectors.