Music of North Africa

North Africa has contributed considerably to popular music, especially Egyptian classical music alongside el Gil, Algerian raï and Chaabi (internationally-known tubes such as "Ya Rayah"-Dahman El Harrachi or Aicha-Cheb Khaled). The broad region is sometimes called Maghreb (excluding Egypt), and the term Maghrebian music is in use. For a variety of reasons Libya does not have as extensive nor popular a tradition as its neighbours. Folk music abounds, however, despite frequent condemnation and suppression from governments,^[1] existing in multiple forms across the region—the Berbers, Sephardic Jews, Tuaregs, Copts and Nubians, for example, retain musical traditions with their ancient roots.

Andalusian music is especially influential, and is played in widely varying forms across the region. This music was imported from Andalusia in the 15th century, after Spain expelled the Moors from that province. The Spanish conquest of the historically Muslim Iberian Peninsula had been going on for some time, and resulted in the emigration of many Iberian Muslims, who were themselves descended from people from across the Mediterranean, into North Africa. These people brought with them a vibrant tradition that had arisen as a fusion of various kinds of Muslim music from Baghdad, Istanbul, Egypt and elsewhere.^{[citation needed]} The best-known derivatives of this style are al-âla in Morocco, Nuubaat and other related styles in Algeria and Ma'luf in Tunisia.