BIOGRAPHY

Roots & Influences

Coming from a musical family, where music is strongly rooted in the culture as a way of life, Ayoub’s mother, Charifa Lemghari, has never been a professional musician on stage, but she regularly leads singing and playing the drums of folk music from Al Houze of Atlas Mountains in ceremonies and weddings.

Meanwhile, his father’s collection of Bob Marley and Dire Straits records was always on in the house – which made him grow up between many different influences that you can hear mixed throughout his music.

Songs of Ayoub are like spices to his musical tajine, the metaphysical blues of the Saharan Berber scales, the virtuosity of fiery flamenco and the innovation of Western music.

Path & Mission

Reaching far from his comfort zone of Morocco, in early 2016, Ayoub moved to settle in Poland. At that time, anti-immigration and slogans of hatred towards people of Muslim background were rising in Europe – which drowned him in some bad experiences. It inspired him to drift with his creativity – he began to write with the purpose of breaking negative stereotypes and propaganda among people in Eastern Europe.

“My music and what I sing about is more needed here, in Europe, so I will always share as much as it is in my power.”

Music & Collaborations

Ayoub Houmanna worked with big names in world music, such as Fatoumata Diawara, Oumou Sangare and Tinariwen. In jazz, he played with artists such as Branford Marsalis, Marcus Miller, and Alex Bailey. For over two years, he performed as a backing vocalist and guitarist with one of New York’s top funk musicians, Christopher Li’nard Jackson. Ayoub performed with Kayah and her Transoriental Orchestra Bez Granic during the Singer Festival (Warsaw, 2021), playing his original songs.

Ayoub performed over 500 concerts as a side and session musician and band leader.

He performed at many festivals, such as African Beats Festival, Afrika Tage Wien, Singer Festival, East of Culture – Different Sounds Festival, Source Festival, Ethno Jazz Beskidy, Multicultural Warsaw Street Party, and Noc Żywych Bębnów Festival.

Ayoub was an executive producer of his first album, Berber Colors, and of an album called Droga, made in collaboration with Jakub Malinowski aka El Cabu (as Sun Followers). With Krzysztof Zalewski, he recorded the single Hey Vee. In 2023, Ayoub released the single Bania and, soon after, the other one called Nabina. These two songs are a part of his upcoming album Mali to Morocco. The LP will tell the story of Gnawa artists in a modern funk style.

In 2019, Ayoub appeared in a TV show with a comedy troupe and alternative rock band called The Books of Knjige from Cetinje, Montenegro.