Moroccan Music Icon Hajja Hamdaouia Remembered by Royal Advisor André Azoulay

André Azoulay, known for his passion for music and the arts, shared several memories of the Moroccan star. "I must have heard Hajja Hamdaouia’s first concert a long time ago. She has always remained in my imagination... wherever I am." He evokes the memory of an artist who was sought after and adored by the great, loved by all and who was the icon of the people. "She had managed this synthesis in time, space and across generations. Like all her aficionados, I am sad that she has left us. I think of her with joy, pleasure, greed, pride because she embodied this Morocco of both talent, and for her I can say, of audacity too, because she was never timid, both in the text and on the stage."

The founding president of the Essaouira-Mogador Association, organizer of the Essaouira Atlantic Andalusias Festival, was also a witness to a musical encounter between Hajja Hamdaouia and Raymonde El Bidaouia, two divas of Moroccan popular song, on the stage of the 15th edition of this festival in 2018.

For André Azoulay, this concert in Essaouira "was beyond anything we could have hoped to experience in a single evening." He evokes with tenderness, "two exceptional personalities of the stage, each in their own way, but at the same time, so close and strong in the sharing." He explained that throughout her career, Hajja Hamdaouia gave the image of a Morocco that was both rooted in tradition, accompanied by an exceptional modernity in creativity.