By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat

“The bands that participated in the event are a mixture of bands that appeared in the youth music scene in Morocco,” Dima Maroc founder Adil Chaoui told Magharebia. “There are other bands that are starting a career after they won in the prestigious Generation Mawazine contest, and through this round, we want to encourage them by presenting them to the audience in a professional way.”

Among those groups were Rwapa Crew, named the best rap band in the 2011 Generation Mawazine contest, and Babel, which received the award in the “blend genre” category. The concert featured other bands that have achieved success and acquired experience in recent years, such as Mayara and Mazagan.

“Concerts are broadcast on Channel 1 both locally and internationally, giving participants a greater incentive to appear in a distinguished way,” Chaoui said. “This also helps increase the number of viewers of this event, and thus gives these bands greater exposure.”

“In order to give participating bands an opportunity to be watched by the biggest possible number of fans, we decided to change programming in this round,” he added. “Programmes now start at the evening instead of the midday time as was the case in previous rounds.”

Meanwhile, band Shayfeen told Magharebia, “The reason which made us participate in this event is that we are crazy about music. The Maroc Hit Parade festival gives us an opportunity to get our music and messages across to fans, given that rap music, which is our specialty, is a genre of music that communicates young people’s ideas.”

“The event is a good mechanism for supporting new bands like ours,” band Rwapa Crew told Magharebia before taking the stage. “It’s an initiative from young people to young people, as young people organise it and bands consisting of young musicians are invited and presented to a predominantly young audience.”

“The biggest obstacle impeding youth music is lack of specialised producers,” the artists added. “The situation in Morocco is that the production of songs is done by singers themselves. We were lucky to work with Morocco’s Redouane, one of the most important world music producers, while he was taking part in Generation Mawazine contest. That co-operation led to a song that was a real hit, but we are still looking for a permanent producer for our work so that we may focus on creativity only.”

For their part, Younes and Yassine of band Babel expressed “appreciation” for Dima Maroc that managed to bring so many bands together.

“We are very happy to present a show before a large audience,” they said. “We live at a time when young singers’ contributions are on the rise, and they have also become more professional. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for such music, and the proof is the acquisition of a large numbers of CDs of these bands and the presence of a large audience at concerts given by these bands.”

In his turn, DJ Namto told Magharebia that “great artists have taken part in this event”. “The audience was greatly touched by their songs, and I hope that similar events will be organised so that Moroccan young people may be given a greater room for expression and innovation,” the performer added.

 
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