Jil Jilala

Marrakech · since 1972

جيل جيلالة

The generation of Jilala. Five decades of Moroccan song, built from melhoun poetry, Sufi rhythm and the street language of the people.

MelhounJilala Sufi traditionGnawaGhiwani movement

Read our story Explore the songs

1972Founded in Marrakech by young theatre artists

1974First record, Lyam Tnadi, on Atlassiphone

OlympiaSold-out nights in Paris within months of their debut

1975Laayoune Ainiya, the song of the Green March

Who we are

Morocco's own sound, given back to Moroccans

In the early 1970s, Moroccan radio played Egyptian orchestras, French chanson and Western pop. A circle of young actors and musicians in Marrakech asked why their own civilisation was missing from the airwaves. Their answer was Jil Jilala: a group that took the old sung poetry of melhoun and the trance rhythms of the Jilala brotherhood, and made them speak to a new generation.

Alongside Nass El Ghiwane and Lemchaheb, Jil Jilala became one of the three great groups of the ghiwani wave, the folk revival that redrew Moroccan popular music. Many fans still describe the two leading bands the same way: if Nass El Ghiwane were Morocco's Rolling Stones, Jil Jilala were its Beatles.

“Why was Moroccan identity absent from the airwaves?”Moulay Tahar Asbahani, founding member, on the question that started it all

Our story

From a Marrakech stage to the Olympia

The television debut, the Rabat concert and the royal welcome of autumn 1972, and the decades that followed.

Read the timeline →

The members

The voices behind the name

Founders, lyricists and masters who shaped the sound, including the first woman of the ghiwani groups.

Meet the members →

Repertoire

Chamaa, Leklam Lemrassaa, Laayoune Ainiya

The songs that became popular classics, and the instruments that carry them.

Explore the songs →

Our story

Five decades of Jil Jilala

The name means “the generation of Jilala”, after the Jilala, Morocco's oldest Sufi brotherhood, which takes its name from the master Abdelkader Jilali. The group was born on the theatre stage and grew into a voice for a whole country.

Roots
Late 1960sMarrakech
A theatre family
Moulay Tahar Asbahani performs with the Marrakech troupe Chabibat Al Hamra and writes songs for the plays of the director Tayeb Saddiki. He later leaves a post at the Ministry of Agriculture to follow his love of melhoun and Moroccan song.
1972The founding
Jil Jilala is born
Performing-arts students Mohamed Derhem, Moulay Tahar Asbahani, Sakina Safadi, Mahmoud Essaadi and Hamid Zoughi form the group in Marrakech. Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri joins after leaving Nass El Ghiwane.
The rise
Sept 1972Television
Three songs on Moroccan television
The group records three songs for TVM. The country discovers them overnight.
7 Oct 1972Rabat
Théâtre Mohammed V
A month after the broadcast, a packed audience in Rabat gives them a standing ovation. The next day King Hassan II receives the group as guests of honour at the Royal Palace.
Early 1970sParis
The Olympia
Within months, Jil Jilala fill the Olympia in Paris. The live album Une soirée avec Jil Jilala à l'Olympia preserves the night.
1974First record
Lyam Tnadi
The debut record appears on the Atlassiphone label. Songs such as Leklam Lemrassaa, Baba Maktoubi, L'Aar a Bouya, Jilala and Chamaa quickly become popular classics.
Nov 1975The Green March
Laayoune Ainiya
Written by Mohammed Chahramane, the song is composed, arranged and recorded in a single night. Marchers sing it on the road south, and it becomes an unofficial national anthem. It is later adapted with new words in Egypt and Kuwait.
1976Album
Chamaa
The album built around the melhoun classic Chamaa, “the candle”, a midnight meditation on life. Tahiri's youthful arrangements bring old melhoun poems such as Chamaa and Lotfya to a young audience.
New directions
1970s–80sLine-up
New voices
Abdelkrim Kasbaji becomes a fan favourite, Hassan Miftah takes over from Hamid Zoughi, and the Gnawa master Mustapha Baqbou joins, bringing the guembri and the ritual depth of the Marrakech Gnawa school.
1985Change
Tahiri departs
Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri leaves. The group explores the sounds sweeping Morocco's youth, raï and reggae, while keeping its own identity. Albums such as Hada Waadek Ya Meskine and Lqalb Lmeskoun show the Gnawa and ghiwani sides of this era.
1995The lyricist
Mohamed Derhem steps away
The group's main lyricist leaves amicably, leaving a gap in the poetry of everyday life that had been the heart of the songs.
Renewal
20032M television
Sakina returns
Sakina Safadi, absent from the stage since 1996, reappears with Jil Jilala on the 2M programme Assahratou Lakoum.
2006Germany
Working with Dissidenten
Jil Jilala begins recording and touring with Uve Müllrich and Marlon Klein of the German world-music group Dissidenten.
2023Own label
The catalogue, in the group's own hands
Releases such as Zamam Al Jamil appear under the Jil Jilala name on digital platforms.
6 Dec 2023UNESCO
Melhoun becomes world heritage
Melhoun, the sung poetry behind Jil Jilala classics such as Chamaa, Al-Latifiya and Naker Lahsan, is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
TodayContinuing
Carrying the name forward
The group continues to perform its repertoire on stages in Morocco and abroad, renewing the live sound while keeping the poetry and the rhythms intact.

The members

The voices behind the name

Jil Jilala's line-up has changed many times. Today the group is led by Abdelkrim Kasbaji, the voice that has carried its songs for five decades.

Portrait photo · Abdelkrim Kasbaji

“Joining Jil Jilala came with Asbahani’s blessing.”Abdelkrim Kasbaji, from his memoir serialised in Al Ittihad Al Ichtiraki

“He was loved and respected… for his sense of humour.”Kasbaji on Moulay Tahar Asbahani, May 2023

President of Jil Jilala · lead voice

Abdelkrim Kasbaji

عبد الكريم القسبجي

A young voice from Marrakech who joined the group in the 1970s and never left. Through every change of line-up, Abdelkrim Kasbaji has kept the songs alive on stage, and today he leads Jil Jilala as its president.

A life in the group

1973–74
Nawas El Hamra
The youngest member and singer of Nawas El Hamra, a Marrakech folk group. In 1974 he travels with them to Casablanca to record their first 45 rpm single, and there meets Jil Jilala founder Hamid Zoughi, who invites the group to perform.
1970s
Joining Jil Jilala
He enters Jil Jilala with the blessing of Moulay Tahar Asbahani, who said the newcomer brought a new flavour and fresh energy. His range soon makes him a fan favourite, above all in the melhoun songs.
1980s–90s
Holding it together
As members come and go, Kasbaji and Asbahani carry the weight of keeping the group on the road.
2023
Farewell to a brother
At Asbahani’s funeral in Marrakech, he pays tribute to an eclectic artist who excelled in song, theatre and cinema.
2026
A book about his voice
Journalist Larbi Riad publishes a book on his life with the group. It is signed on 31 July 2026 at the Sidi Belyout cultural complex in Casablanca, during the Ghiwane Phenomenon Festival.
Today
President
He leads Jil Jilala on stage and off, carrying the repertoire to a new generation.

Friends describe a man who is always smiling and quick with a joke, yet exact about facts and dates. He insists that the history of the group be written down properly.

“A leafy tree whose shade draws the eye from afar.”Writer Idriss Tazarni on Kasbaji, 2017

The book

Abdelkrim Kasbaji: the story of a voice that marked the path of Jil Jilala, by Larbi Riad.

The founders and companions

Seven artists who built the sound

The idea of the group came from Hamid Zoughi in Marrakech in 1972. These are the artists who, with Kasbaji, gave Jil Jilala its voice.

Moulay Tahar Asbahani

مولاي الطاهر الأصبهاني

Founder · voice1948 – 2023

Born in the Kasbah of Marrakech, he acted with Chabibat Al Hamra and wrote songs for Tayeb Saddiki’s plays before leaving a ministry job to found the group. Singer, actor and storyteller, he was the subject of the 2010 biography Lamma Ghanna al-Maghrib (When Morocco Sang). King Mohammed VI sent condolences to his family when he died on 3 May 2023.

Mohamed Derhem

محمد الدرهم

Founder · lyricist · composerWith the group 1972 – mid-1990s

The poet of the group, with a fiery stage presence as singer and percussionist. His lyrics gave voice to everyday hopes and worries. He left in the mid-1990s for a solo career, recorded a solo album, sang on a 2007 track with rapper Elam Jay and Mustapha Baqbou, and later sat on the jury of the 2M talent show Studio 2M.

Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri

مولاي عبد العزيز الطاهري

Guembri · voice · lyricistLeft Nass El Ghiwane to join; left 1985

A master of melhoun who had played guembri in Nass El Ghiwane before crossing to Jil Jilala. He wrote lyrics and gave classics like Chamaa and Lotfya a youthful energy, often playing ta’rija or bendir on stage. He remained close to the group and spoke at Asbahani’s funeral in 2023.

Sakina Safadi

سكينة الصفدي

Founder · voicec. 1952 – 2022

A daughter of Casablanca who came from the theatre and joined in 1972, becoming the first female voice of the ghiwani groups. She also performed in traditional musical plays. After stepping back in 1996 she returned with the group on 2M in 2003. She died in Casablanca in May 2022, aged 70.

Maâlem Mustapha Baqbou

المعلم مصطفى باقبو

Maâlem · guembri1953 – 2025

Born in Marrakech and raised in a Gnawa zaouia by his father, Maâlem El Ayachi Baqbou. After the folk group Tiq Maya, he joined Jil Jilala and took the guembri to large stages. He became a star of the Essaouira Gnaoua Festival and one of the first to fuse Gnawa with world music, including with drummer Will Calhoun. He died on 8 September 2025 and rests in Bab Aghmat cemetery, Marrakech.

Hassan Miftah

حسن مفتاح

BouzoukiDied August 2013

Trained in music at Dar Si Said in Marrakech and led a local group before joining Jil Jilala in the 1970s, taking over from Hamid Zoughi. His bouzouki gave the group its shimmering sound. He was laid to rest in Marrakech before a large crowd and the members of the group.

Mahmoud Saadi

محمود السعدي

FounderLeft in the 1980s

Also among the founders of Nass El Ghiwane, he gave up a management post at the national tea and sugar office to devote himself to music. Derhem remembered him as a committed activist who believed artists could fight injustice, and as a mentor to young talent. He died in Casablanca aged 63.

Legacy & photos

A place in Morocco's collective memory

Jil Jilala helped move North African popular music away from Egyptian-style orchestras and back to Moroccan roots. Their songs were a refuge for a generation, and they are now studied as part of the country's shared heritage.

Moments that made the legend

Received at the Royal Palace the day after their first concert in Rabat. The Olympia in Paris within months. And one night when the Egyptian star Abdelhalim Hafez, watching from the audience, climbed onto the stage and picked up a bendir to play with them.

Rivals and brothers

The 1970s rivalry between Jil Jilala and Nass El Ghiwane divided fans across Morocco. Musicians crossed between the two groups, and together they founded a style that festivals still celebrate today.

What the songs say

Five threads through the songbook

Read together, the lyrics show a group that sings about the soul, the street and the nation in the same breath, in the everyday Darija of Moroccans.

Melhoun and Sufi poetry

Jil Jilala carries the old sung poetry of melhoun to new generations, inscribed by UNESCO as world heritage in 2023, and the devotion of the Jilala brotherhood.

Chamaa · Al-Latifiya · Naker Lahsan · El Boraqia · Nour Al Anouar · Lajouad

A social conscience

Songs for working people, idle youth and everyone left behind, with a constant call to dignity and resistance.

Hada Waadek Ya Meskine · Ya Men Aana · Dawiweh · Essfina · Ya Asafah Alik

The homeland

From the Green March to the northern enclaves, the songs speak of a country and its land.

Laayoune Ainiya · Gellaa Ddim · Jnoud Sahra

Arab causes

Solidarity with Palestine and calls to Arab and Muslim unity run through several songs.

Ya Arbi Ya Muslim · Falestine · Ana Arabi · Al Jafriya

Love, loss and hope

Longing, betrayal, absent loved ones, and the conviction that the wheel will turn again.

Leklam Lemrassaa · Lighara · Ach Bik Daret Leqdar · Daret Bina Eddoura · Lyam Tnadi

Photo archive

Frames for the association's photographs

September 1972. The first television recording. — **September 1972.** The first television recording.

Sakina Safadi. The first woman of the ghiwani groups. — **Sakina Safadi.** The first woman of the ghiwani groups.

Théâtre Mohammed V, 1972. The first concert. — **Théâtre Mohammed V, 1972.** The first concert.

Live at the Olympia. The Paris record. — **Live at the Olympia.** The Paris record.

1974. The Atlassiphone debut. — **1974.** The Atlassiphone debut.

Early 1980s. Asbahani, Derhem, Tahiri, Miftah and Kasbaji. — **Early 1980s.** Asbahani, Derhem, Tahiri, Miftah and Kasbaji.

On stage today. The current line-up. — **On stage today.** The current line-up.

In memory