A sensation caused by a promotional video clip for tourism in Algeria, following achieving record viewership rates within a few hours.
The video bore the name “Disco Magreb” by the French artist of Algerian origin, “William Sami Grieg”, known in the artistic community as “Dj Snake”, and achieved follow-up rates of more than 4 million days following its release.
The video was attended by the Algerian comedian, Mustapha Haimon, one of the heroes of the famous “Without Borders” series in the nineties of the last century.
The video did not include any lyrics, and it achieved a resounding success, as the artist “Digi Snake” relied on the musical mix of various Algerian musical genres in a way that surprised the followers.
The artist’s promotion did not stop at the diverse Algerian music from different regions of the country, but rather on many of the customs, traditions and tourist areas that symbolize its culture.
The video clip also included Algerian youth dances and presences from different regions of the country.
In statements to French media, the artist “Digi Snaek” revealed that the video clip is “a love letter from the artist to his people by highlighting the cultural diversity of Algeria and its people.”
He talked regarding the inspiration and naming of his new artwork from the name of a famous Algerian company in the nineties of the last century for the production of rai songs.
Cheb Khaled on the line of controversy
The pioneers of social media were divided between admirers and welcomes of the idea of a video clip, which they agreed on as a “promotional work for tourism in Algeria”, and among them those who expressed their astonishment at the artist’s ability to create a musical mix of various Algerian lyrical genres.
While others considered some of the scenes in the “Digi Snake” video clip “unrealistic” and some considered them “offensive to Algeria”.
On Wednesday, Cheb Khaled entered the controversy caused by the video clip of the French artist of Algerian origin, “Digi Snaek”.
In media statements, Cheb Khaled described the video clip’s critics as “sick”, and considered it a “honor to Algeria.”
The international artist also confirmed that “Digi Snake” returned his viewers and fans to “Mustafa Bila Hodoud and Memories of Boualem Disco Maghreb” in reference to the artist Mustafa Haimon and the name of the former music production company.
Cheb Khaled went even further, when he emphasized in his statements the clip “described the diaries of simple Algerian youth and the ordinary life of Algerians and popular neighborhoods.”
In turn, the Algerian activist, Hajar Hammadi, published a lengthy publication on the video clip “Digi Snake”, and considered that what the artist presented was scenes of “a truth from Algeria”, and called on the Algerians to accept it.
“Hajar” said in a post that what was included in the video clip was “another face of tourism in Algeria”, and provided examples of this from Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries of the world, which she said were “building their tourism in all its aspects.”
As for the Algerian comedian Samir Zayan, known as “Mr. X”, he had a “sarcastic” opinion regarding the controversy caused by the “Disco Maghrab” video clip on his Instagram page.
Mister X wrote: “First, the Snake video is directed to the world, not to the Algerians, but in the video clip it showed things that do not exist in the world, but only exist in Algeria.”
He continued, “This shot that appears to you is normal and accustomed to it, but the foreigner has not seen it in his life. He has never seen in his life a person who drives a motorcycle while he is sleeping, and drives it with summer shoes on top of it with socks.”
