Ammouri Mbark

Ammouri Mbark (born 1951) was a Moroccan singer. He is considered as the renovator of the Moroccan Amazigh (Berber) music.

Aamouri Mbark was born in Irguiten, a small village located at the bottom of the High Atlas near Tarudan. A shepherd, he was already singing, while letting the herd graze in the neighboring fields. At the age of eight, the sudden death of his parents lead him to the orphanage of Tarudant where he continued his studies. Educated in French and Arabic, he lost the usage of his mother tongue.

At the orphanage, He met in the college some students fascinated by western music. In 1969, they formed a small group, "The Birds", and sung in French. At the end of the Sixties, he left Tarudant to work in Agadir. Meanwhile, the Arabic-speaking group Nass Al Ghiwane imposed his rhythm and influenced considerably the development of popular music groups. Ammuri Mbark joined some friends in Tiznit where they formed a new group, The "Souss Five", and sang in Arabic. But the fate reconciled Ammuri Mbark with the songs from his childhood. In a private party, he met a person of the AMREC (the Moroccan Association of Research and Cultural Exchanges, a cultural Amazigh association) who invited him to Rabat to contribute to an experiment of renewal of the Berber music initiated by AMREC members: The group which will bear the name "Usman" (Lightning) was born.

After five years of successes which lead the group on the European stages (the Olympia in Paris, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Palais d’hiver in Lyon), Usman broke up in 1978. Ammuri Mbark, the vocal soloist of Usman and its melodist, continued a career in solo and recorded his first cassette: Tazwit nera nek dim a nmun (Bee, I want to be your companion) of the poetry by Mohammed El-Moustaoui.

Throughout his musical itinerary, Ammouri Mbark did not cease innovating and exploring traditional and modern rhythms. He interpreted the texts of the large number of contemporary Amazighs poets: Azayku, Mustawi, Akhiyyat... In the recurring topics sung by Ammuri Mbark, one finds the Amazigh identity, the love, the wandering and the exile. At the first Festival of the Modern Moroccan Song held in 1985 in Mohammedia, he won the 3rd price by interpreting a poem of Ali Azayku "Gennevilliers". His repertory includes ten audio cassettes, without forgetting two recorded with Usman. His last cassette was recorded in collaboration with Ali Shuhad, the singer poet of the Arshash group.