Born to Algerian parents on June 6, 1978, Faudel Belloua grew up in Mantes-la-Jolie, near Paris. Introduced to raï, malouf and reggae by his grandmother, young Faudel was keen from adolescence to make music his main profession. After studying accounting, which he decided to abandon altogether, he devoted himself to his artistic career, starting out with a group, Les Étoiles Du Raï, in 1990. Performing mainly in the Paris region, the group covered Raï classics by Cheb Mami and Khaled, and Faudel took to the stage with ease. Little by little, encounters led him to launch out on his own, and he began by opening for MC Solaar and Khaled. In 1996, Faudel was selected to represent the Île-de-France region at the Printemps de Bourges festival, and in 1997 he went on to release his debut album, Baïda, with the song "Tellement N'brick " (Tellement je t'aime). The following year saw the release of a collaborative album with Rachid Taha and Khaled, 1, 2, 3 Soleils, and the success of Faudel's Raï songs earned him the title of Revelation of the Year at the 1998 Victoires de la Musique awards. The singer went on to star in the film Le Battement D'Ailes Du Papillon, then released a new album in 2001, Samra. After Un Autre Soleil and its single "Je Veux Vivre" in 2003, Faudel scored another hit in France with the track "Mon Pays" (No. 1 sales) on the album Mundial Corrida. The artist then became more discreet in the 2010s, with an aborted album release in 2012 and a few tracks released outside of major releases, such as "Rani" (2017) and "All Day, All Night " (2018).
