“Love is not expressed, it is lived! Me, I sing love out loud.”
– Houari Manar
Queer people all throughout history have taken great pains to hide their sexualities and gender identities in order to achieve some level of success in their chosen fields. Some have been more successful at this than others, and many, no matter how thoroughly they attempted to keep their queer identity under wraps, have been shunned due to their queerness. Whether it is as obvious as country-wide bans of their work, or as subtle as not getting an opportunity they would have received if not for their identity, it is an unfortunate and common thread throughout our history. Queerness is seen as not only a negative trait on its own but also a bad investment.
During Pride month, especially, this reality is often forgotten. In the rush for corporations to paint themselves as progressive and get those rainbow dollars, the history and reality of queer people all around the world are forgotten. One need not look far for the most egregious example of this phenomenon: the U.S. Marine Corps, which actively banned queer people until quite recently and has historically been a very violent and traumatizing force in queer people’s lives around the world, will unironically post a photo of rainbow bullets. As progress marches on, the failures of the past are swept under the rug before anyone has a chance to demand an apology for the harm caused. Much of the harm is unforgivable, either because it is so horrible or because the harmed party is no longer here to decide. It is the latter in the case of Houari Manar, a queer musician who was blocked out of his chosen profession for the smallest slip; a moment of vulnerability paid back in a lifetime of unjustified punishments.
Born in Oran, Algeria on the 18th of December, 1981, he grew up in a musical family, with two of his twelve siblings becoming rai musicians just as he had. Growing up he looked up to artists such as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Francis Cabrel. He would go on to model himself after them.
Rai music is a style that was made and popularized in Algeria, where it largely took the role of protest music. Rai itself means “opinion” in Algerian Arabic and it was dominated by women, working-class people, and Algerians who were forced off of their land by the French from the beginning. As the movement gained popularity though, women’s presence in it was pushed more and more to the sidelines. The lyrics were used to discuss colonialism, class struggles, racial discrimination, sexuality, and other taboo subjects that the government tried to crack down on. For a significant period of time rai was outright banned in Algeria, and the passports of rai performers were taken away. Even when this ban was eventually lifted, religious extremists still protested the genre and its propensity to shine a light on less discussed topics.
Knowing this history makes the story of Houari Manar take on a note of poetic irony. Widely known to be a gay man, Manar was never open about his sexuality, but it became public knowledge when a photo of him kissing another man was publicized. He was then dropped from concerts, banned from television, and plagued by religious extremists who protested his very existence. Just like the genre he loved, the one that was noted for its openness and radical politics, he was shoved viciously out of the limelight. He said of this:
“My raï is a clean raï. Everything I sing, I sing in front of families, children, and the elderly. I am not one of those who sing vulgarities. I am a respected artist. I have fans jostling, wives crying when I sing while their husbands are jealous of me. I am loved by all of Algeria. They judge me because I sing the man? Because I dye my hair or have a tattoo? And the football players of the Algerian team? Some are tattooed and others have platinum blonde hair but strangely, nobody minds. I tell you, this is hypocrisy!”
He would dance around the discussion of his sexuality his whole life. He was vague about his personal life and tried to focus on the music, so much so that when interviewed by Le Monde, the article finished with:
“It's five o'clock in the morning in Algiers, we're debriefing in the car: "We really don't have enough content to do a story on Houari Manar but we still owe him a nice article for alcohol and free entry.”
What is known about him is that he lived alone with his mother to the end of his life and was known as a very generous man, saying: “I want to open a bakery to sell and give away the bread.”
When discussing Manar and his life, it is difficult to find much outside of discussions of his death at the age of 37 due to a heart attack during cosmetic surgery. His passing was shocking to the larger community and is a loss that is still felt. There have been times when a person who is unfairly maligned in their life is still around to witness a rehabilitation of their image in their later years—to see the beginnings of a new legacy forming and taste the fruit of their labours. This is not a common phenomenon, unfortunately, and Manar is among the majority who never get the apology that they so dearly deserve.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Algerian Rai singer Houari Manar dies mid-surgery. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://en.royanews.tv/news/16392/2019-01-08
Archive, V. A., Author, E. the, & feed, G. author R. (2022, June 1). Marine Corps sparks outrage with rainbow bullets to mark Pride month. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2022/06/01/marine-corps-sparks-outrage-with-pride-month-rainbow-bullets/
Controversial Algerian Singer Dies During Plastic Surgery. (n.d.). Al Bawaba. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://www.albawaba.com/loop/controversial-algerian-singer-dies-during-plastic-surgery-1236022
Houari Manar, la voix festive et libre du raï algérien, s’éteint: “Il était l’ami des pauvres.” (2019, January 9). TSA. https://www.tsa-algerie.com/houari-manar-la-voix-festive-et-libre-du-rai-algerien-seteint-il-etait-lami-des-pauvres/
LGBT fans mourn Algerian singer Houari Manar after his sudden death. (2019, January 8). PinkNews | Latest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans News | LGBT+ News. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/01/08/houari-manar-death-lgbt-fans/
Othmani, B. (2015, April 10). Algérie underground (6);: À la recherche de la sexualité dans le raï. Le Monde.fr. https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/11/27/algerie-underground-6-a-la-recherche-de-la-sexualite-dans-le-rai_4613473_3212.html
Saada, H. (n.d.). Algeria: Death of raï male singer Houari Manar during plastic surgery | DZ Breaking. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://www.dzbreaking.com/2019/01/08/algeria-death-rai-male-singer-houari-manar-plastic-surgery/