Noura

Biography

Noura (in Arabic: نورة) is an Algerian singer of Arabic, Amazigh and French languages, born Fatima Zohra Badji on April 26, 1938 in Sidi Amar in Algeria, and died on June 1, 2014 in Paris. She is the wife of Kamel Hamadi, singer-songwriter, with whom she forms a legendary couple in the Arab world.

In the 1950s she started on Algiers radio where she hosted a children's show. According to researcher Naïma Huber-Yahi, “she gained attention by performing in plays and operettas. She quickly established herself as one of the greatest Algerian singers of the time”, with titles such as Ya Ma Goulili by Mahboub Bati.

Arriving in France in 1959, she discovered Paris, its lights and the extended fami...