Moroccan Music Icon Soukaina Safadi, Member of Jil Jilala, Dies at 70

The Arab artistic world is in mourning. Hajja Soukaina Safadi, a member of the Jil Jilala group, died on Friday from an illness. Born in Bab Jdid, in the old Casablanca medina, she made her first steps in cinema in the 1970s. She had joined the Jil Jilala troupe in 1972 alongside the late Boujmiâ, Larbi Batma, Mahmoud Saâdi and the survivors Omar Essayed, Allal Baâli, Moulay Tahar Esbahani, Moulay Abdellaziz Tahiri, Mohamed Derhem and Hamid Zoughi.

Hajja Soukaina Safadi has marked Moroccan music with her talents. She was the face of the emancipation of Moroccan women. The only woman who belonged to the progressive movement of Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala. A movement that was a musical revolution appreciated by all Moroccans.

After a few years of success, she left the stage before making a comeback in April 1996. At the time, the Jil Jilala group was being recomposed for a final performance. Reappearing a few years later, on June 28, 2003, during the "Assahratou Lakoum" program broadcast on the second channel, Hajja Soukaina Safadi will definitively leave the musical world.