Riad Fehri

“I learnt about music when I was a child as I grew up in a family of music lovers.

It is an old tradition in Tunisian families, that when a girl gets married, she takes her piano and her musical instruments to her new home.

This is how we were brought up here. My grandmother, God rest her soul, used to sing maluf music. My mother as well. My father was a huge fan of Egyptian singer Mohamed Abdul Wahab. My elder brother used to study in the Conservatoire, the Music Institute.

So I lived in an environment of music. Even the neighbourhood where I lived, the Halfaouin, had a great influence on me, as music was heard all day and night in its cafes; songs of Um Kalthoum, Abdul Halim, Abdul Wahab, Saliha and Tunisian maluf music.

The environment and the musical surroundings are very important factors in the creation of a musician.

Music is the only tool that can provide quick solutions as an alternative to speech.

My approach is to mix musical styles.

I believe that these days the language of speech has serious shortcomings. The solutions come from the individual.

I think we should share the stage. Each one should deal with the other according to their own culture, until we reach a new way to hold a dialogue.

This is the mission I’ve chosen and I will persevere with it. I believe we are different and yet similar at the same time. People are the same, their suffering is the same. They have qualities that are both common and different.”

Next Music Station airs at the following times GMT each week: Tuesday: 2000; Wednesday: 1200; Thursday: 0100; Friday: 0600; Saturday: 2000; Sunday: 1200; Monday: 0100; Tuesday: 0600. Click here for more on the series.