Lotfi Attar

Lotfi Attar, better known as Lotfi Raïna Raï, is an Algerian guitarist, songwriter and singer, born March 14, 1952 in Sidi Bel Abbès. Lotfi Attar grew up in a family of five brothers and a sister, all music lovers, including his older brother Kamel, musician, first guitarist of Sidi Bel Abbès. When the war of independence broke out in 1954, Lotfi's father was already in the national movement before becoming an FLN activist, imprisoned several times. On the eve of independence, in 1962, his father was assassinated by an OAS terrorist commando and the house was dynamited. The whole family, threatened with death by the OAS, took refuge in Tlemcen. Barely ten years old, this painful tragedy marked young Lotfi for life. With the cruelty of the war he stopped his schooling with a Certificate of Primary Studies, he began to play the guitar. At the age of twelve, in 1964, he lost his older brother Kamel, who died following an illness. In 1969, he worked for a watchmaker. At the age of 15, he...