Idir was born El-Hamid Cheriet and was studying geology when Radio Alger called him, in 1973, to stand in for a singer at short notice. He performed a lullaby drawn from one of his grandmother's tales, and the whole country heard it. A Vava Inouva, released in 1976, travelled to seventy-seven countries in fifteen languages: never had a Kabyle song gone so far.
The story
Born at Aït Yenni, in Kabylia, on 25 October 1945, El-Hamid Cheriet studied geology and had no intention of going on stage.
In 1973 Radio Algiers called him in at a few hours' notice to replace the singer Nouara. He gave them a lullaby built on a tale of his grandmother's: the whole country heard it.
A Vava Inouva came out in 1976 and travelled far further: seventy-seven countries, fifteen languages, a song in Kabyle on the radio stations of the world — the first great hit out of North Africa. Then Idir fell silent for a decade.
He came back in 1992 at the New Morning, released Identités in 1999 with Manu Chao and Maxime Le Forestier, backed the Kabyle uprising at the Zénith in July 2001, and signed La France des couleurs in 2007.
In January 2018 he sang in Algiers after thirty-eight years away. He died of pulmonary fibrosis at the Bichat hospital on 2 May 2020 and rests in Division 85, on the Avenue Transversale no. 2, seventeenth row, in the cemetery's former Muslim enclosure.
The grave
A stone bearing both names, in order: “El-Hamid CHERIET, IDIR, 1945-2020” — the civil name first, the stage name after. It stands in the former Muslim enclosure of Division 85, a plot once reserved for Muslim burials and now open to all. Nothing recalls A Vava Inouva, the Kabyle song that seventy-seven countries broadcast.
On site, do not miss
The inscription gives both names, the civil one and the stage one: “El-Hamid CHERIET, IDIR, 1945-2020”. The grave lies in the former Muslim enclosure of Division 85.
Visitors' questions
Where is Idir's grave?
In Division 85, Avenue Transversale No. 2, seventeenth row, in the cemetery's former Muslim enclosure — a plot once reserved for Muslim burials and now open to all, where the painter Lucien Fontanarosa also rests.
Lucien FontanarosaWhat is “A Vava Inouva”?
A lullaby built on a tale his grandmother used to tell him, recorded in 1976 in the Kabyle language. Broadcast in seventy-seven countries and translated into fifteen languages, it stands as the first great worldwide hit to come out of North Africa.
Ahmet KayaHow did Idir get started?
By chance: a geology student, he was called in to Radio Algiers in 1973 to stand in at a moment's notice for the singer Nouara. After A Vava Inouva he fell silent for a full decade, before returning to the stage at Paris's New Morning club in 1992.
Michel DelpechDid Idir ever sing in Algeria again?
Once, in January 2018, after thirty-eight years away: the Algiers concert was a national event. He died two years later in Paris, of pulmonary fibrosis, and rests at Père-Lachaise.
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