There are songs that entertain. And then there are songs that we remember. On Thursday night in Chandigarh, Alright Mela played both at once.
The band performed as part of Fête de la Musique 2026, the global French music celebration. At the heart of their sound is Gnawa, a tradition rooted in the history of sub-Saharan Africans enslaved in North Africa and sustained through trance, rhythm, and collective memory. Their music explores deep themes of migration, tolerance, coexistence and identity, drawing on both historical experiences and contemporary realities.
Vocalist Jaouad El Garouge grew up immersed in the tradition in Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Alongside him Cheb Xavi handles keyboards and electronics, while Markus plays electric oud. Together, the trio moves between Europe, the Maghreb and the Middle East, creating music that reaches the body before the mind.
The songs are not light. Jaouad lives in Paris, where he watches displacement up close— people from Syria, Iran and Somalia arrive every day carrying experiences and losses that are hard to put into words. "It is not possible to not be sensible to that subject," he says. He does not call it activism. "We don't have time only to fight. We also bring a message." Cheb Xavi adds, "We make poetry around these problems, to welcome people to understand."
The result is music that holds grief and joy in the same breath, which is, in fact, exactly what Gnawa has always done. "It is like a ceremony," Jaouad says. “You dance until you are in a trance. The body has to talk also."
Asked what he wanted the audience to take home, he did not hesitate. "A moment of joy. People live together in love. This is our first and last message."
By the end of the night, it did not matter where the music came from. It only mattered that the room was moving. The band will perform next in Hyderabad on June 21.
