Kamel Messaoudi live concert in Paris in 1996. In the early 1990s, while Algerian Chaâbi was struggling to renew itself and attract young people in the face of Raï, Kamel, born on January 30, 1961 in Algiers, into a modest family, achieved great success with his first album, notably featuring Echema’a (the candle). On December 10, 1998, Kamel Messaoudi died, cut down in the prime of his career, at the age of 37, in a road accident after appearing on an Algerian television show.