Boudjemaa El Ankis; the master of Chaabi music; author, composer and performer died of an illness at the age of 88, on Wednesday, at Ain Naadja hospital in Algiers, relatives said.

Boudjemaa Mohamed, alias El Ankis, who was born on 17 June 1927 in Algiers performed before an audience for the first time at a wedding in 1942.

He, however, had been practicing music (mandolin and guitar) for a long time before that year, with artists, like Said El Meddah and Ahmed Serri.

Boudjemaa performed, within a band created in 1945, alongside El Hadj Mhamed El Anka and Hadj Mrizek, the two biggest names of Chaabi music, before starting performing his own music in early 1950.

After a ten-year of absence as the artist was arrested and tortured twice by French colonial army during the national liberation war (1954-1962), the artist came back to the musical stage as soon as he got out of prison, with "Djana El Intissar," in which he focused on the demonstrations of 11 December 1961.

After independence, in 1963, the famous author Mahboub Bati propelled him to the forefront with songs like "Ah Ya Ntya," "Rah El Ghali Rah" and "Tchaourou Aalya," which would confirm his surname "El Ankis," a pet name for El Anka.

The artist, who left behind a rich repertoire of more than 300 songs, will be interred Thursday at the cemetery of El Kettar, Algiers.