France says goodbye to “Plus belle la vie”

ALGIERS: Beautiful, intelligent and talented, Baraka Merzaia, the young Algerian rising star is proving to be a true force of nature.

Those who don’t know her will soon find Baraka on their small screens, Arab News français went to meet him to find out his story.

Originally from Adrar, in southern Algeria, the young artist based in Algiers collects several strings to her bow. A multifaceted artist, Merzaia is also endowed with an Angelic voice. Discovered at the age of 16, she joined a choir where she learned to improve her voice.

Touch of everything and polyglot like the vast majority of young Algerians, the young woman attracts attention across borders.

Notably in India, four years ago, as the country celebrated the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, the musician received praise from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for her ‘memorable’ rendition of ‘Vaishnava Jana To’. , a very popular Hindu hymn whose lyrics are imbued with an empathy that she hopes is contagious.

Elected Miss Talent 2019, the young Sahrawi beauty multiplies modeling contracts. -Just like his two sisters Ferdous and Amina, Baraka who started the picture a few years ago and who aspires to tread the international catwalks, seems to captivate the cameras.

Admiring the career of Somali-American model Halima Aden, who was the model to wear a hijab on the cover of Vogue and the first to wear a burkini in Sports Illustrated magazine, Baraka Merzaia, in turn, aims to break beauty stereotypes by remaining honest and faithful to his faith.

Also a student of Spanish language, the young girl, full of ambition, explains that her mother, to whom she is very close, holds a doctorate, which motivates her, in parallel with her artistic projects, to follow in her footsteps. pursuing higher education.

Not very visible in the North African imagination, the presence of Baraka Merzaia embodies, perhaps unconsciously, but with enormous elegance, an Algeria in need of representation.

Very attached to her faith, the young woman says she declined offers of partnerships with brands who asked her to remove her veil for a photo shoot.

“Many consider that my veil is a fashion accessory, which is far from being the case, and I am convinced that I can carry out my projects without compromising my integrity” explains the young girl.

Africanity and Algerianity

On the web, the singer, photo model, and recently become an actress shares with more than half a million subscribers her daily life and her artistic projects.

Far from political and racial claims, Baraka’s particularity seems to reside in the fact that she claims her Algerianness, her Africanness and her faith that she was able to reconcile. And thus proves that far from being incompatible, these aspects of the Algerian identity compliment each other.

In a country where youth sometimes tends towards European or foreign canons of beauty, the young woman demonstrates by her talent and her quiet strength that “our identity, in addition to being plural and rich, still has a lot to offer and deserves to be discovered.

His business is successful. Indeed, like all young people of his age, Baraka likes to share fragments of his daily life, but also his professional achievements, particularly in the field of modeling, music and art.

Merzaia says that one day, when she arrived in her hometown of In Sala, she decided to share moments of life specific to her region of origin, in southern Algeria.

“When I posted a video where I was showing how we make the kesra, a semolina pancake cooked in sand, I was inundated with benevolent and curious messages from all over the country, asking me to share this kind of content more frequently” marvels Baraka Merzaia.

This video, widely relayed on social networks, particularly by NWE, a media that highlights African culture in all its diversity, has thus contributed to highlighting Algerian culture.

Currently accumulating more than 515k subscribers on Instagram and TikTok, the young woman explains that she sees this platform as one of many ways to introduce people to southern Algeria that we usually see very little and, broken at the same time, with stereotypes concerning the inhabitants of the Sahara.

In 2006, a census estimated that the black community in Algeria represented around 5% of the national population, the lowest proportion of the Maghreb countries.

“I do not consider myself an influencer, nevertheless I aspire to participate in the influence of my culture, by sharing with the people who follow me, my faith and my culture, between modernism and tradition.” says Merzaia.

Outperforming and turned towards a future that looks bright, the one whose first name evokes divine blessing and beneficial influence aspires to a life worthy of her first name.