Les Fatmas de Belgica

The Brussels choir Les Fatmas de Belgica performs popular songs from northern Morocco sung in Darija (a Maghrebi dialect, for those who are new), while being a part of the Western polyphonic tradition. Founded in 2014 by the Belgian-Moroccan musician Laïla Amezian as part of the project Le Chant de la Mémoire, which brought together many women of different social and cultural origins, the choir now takes an approach based on remembering, collecting, and passing on.

These songs, from the oral tradition and passed down from generation to generation, have crossed the Mediterranean. Anchored in a culture, carried in the suitcases of these women, and repeated tirelessly so as not to be forgotten, they are the witnesses to a living, moving, multiple and evolving identity.