(b Fès, 7 Jan 1941). Moroccan singer and composer. He studied at the newly created Conservatory of Music in Fès in the 1950s. From 1959 to 1962 he pursued careers in both theatre and radio. He made his first recordings in 1959 and enjoyed successes with the songs l-Tūmūbīl, composed by Mohammed ben Abdeslam, and Lā tatrukinī, composed by Doukkali himself. After touring Algeria in 1962, he left Morocco and settled in Cairo. His three-year sojourn in Egypt established his popularity outside North Africa. After returning to Morocco in 1965, he enjoyed his greatest success of the 1960s with the recording of his composition Mā ānā illā bashar. A successful recording of this song by the Lebanese singer Sabah drew the attention of the greater Arab world to Doukkali in particular and to Moroccan song in general. Doukkali remained active in the 1990s, enjoying awards and success with compositions such as Kān yā mākān and Montparnasse.
Doukkali, with Abdelhadi Belkhayat, is one of the most successful artists of Moroccan chanson moderne. This genre was inspired by 20th-century Egyptian music and shares certain of its characteristics, such as song forms and the use of large orchestras; it blends the Egyptian musical approach to modernity with Moroccan idioms. Doukkali has consistently exploited the possibilities of this genre, singing works in classical Arabic as well as Moroccan dialect and using both Moroccan and Middle Eastern modes and rhythms. His choice of poetic texts is similarly eclectic, ranging from the romantic to the patriotic and from folktales to social commentary.
A. and M.E. Hachlaf: Anthologie de la musique arabe, 1906–1960 (Paris, 1993)
A. Fassi: Passions orientales: anthologie, traduite de l'arabe, de la chanson orientale et nord-africaine classique et moderne (Tangiers, 1996)
S. Cherki: Jul tara al-ma‘ānī [Wander and you will see the meanings] (Casablanca, 1997)
TIMOTHY D. FUSON