When Moroccan Engineering student Omar Beharbit sat down to play piano last week he had no idea his performance would go viral. On Thursday, July 11, 2019, Omar posted a video of himself performing his patriotic rendition of Morocco‘s National Anthem. In less than a week, his jazz interpretation of Ali Squalli Houssaini’s patriotic song has been viewed over 2,000 times. The video also received hundreds of likes, dozens of comments, and multiple shares.
Benharbit currently lives in Paris and is pursuing an Engineering Degree in Applied Mathematics. He is also interning at the HEC Paris.
The inspiration for Benharbit’s musical demonstration is unclear however jazz is a hobby of his. Many Moroccans have been lamenting the recent death of the Fes born Squalli; some have gathered Benharbit is responding to this situation. King Mohammed VI called the writer a “pioneer of modern Arabic literature, the creator of the national anthem, and he who enriched the national library.”
Squalli wrote the lyrics to the National Moroccan Anthem in 1969. Prior to this, it was only used in melody forms. The writer was originally from Fes. He received his BA in literature from Al-Quaraouiyine (1951), the world’s oldest University. Eventually, Squalli was invited to work as a professor at Al-Quaraouiyine. His resume also includes being appointed the advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1956), working at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat (1964), and from 1971 acting as an inspector for the Ministry of Education.
Squalli’s writing also earned him much prestige. He won the Morocco Grand Prize (1982) and the King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1992) for children’s literature. Ali Squalli Houssaini passed away on November 5th, 2018. The cause was an incurable disease. He was 86 years old.