RE-ISSUE DATE: APR 2025
Tunisian singer and actor Habiba Msika was a legendary figure in Tunis’s 1920s art scene. Msika’s bold nonconformity and tragic fate resonated deeply with her contemporaries. she subverted the patriarchy of her time, though violence born of that very misogyny would one day kill her.
Born in 1899 or 1900 to a family of musicians living in Tunis’s hara (or Jewish quarter), Msika began her musical training at a young age. She was instructed by her aunt, Leila Sfez, who had herself been a diva and cabaret owner. Under Sfez’s tutelage, Msika learned classical Andalusian music (Maalouf) and oud. But it was as a cabaret singer, dancer, and actor that she would become something like the Madonna of her time.
She sang dozens of songs reveling in the pleasures of free love
A rebellious soul, Msika crossed boundaries in all that she did: she insisted on playing male roles in her theatrical career (sensing they’d give more range to her talent), and is said to have been the first singer in the country to mix dance and song, a practice that electrified her performances. Despite furious attacks from the conservative press, she sang dozens of songs reveling in the pleasures of free love. The song “Ala Srir Ennoum,” which translates to “In My Bed,” is one of them.
she subverted the patriarchy of her time, though violence born of that very misogyny would one day kill her.
Offstage, Msika’s life was just as dramatic. She was often referred to as “l’aimée de tous”, or “Habibat al-Kul” — a play on her first name that translates to “beloved by all”. It’s said that she counted princes of Egypt, Iraq, and Tunisia among her lovers. And she presided over a devoted fan club, a group of male admirers called the Asker Ellil (Soldiers of the Night), who sometimes provided her with financial support. Even so, she amassed a personal fortune through her performances, and was able to achieve financial independence.
TRACK LIST
Msika's songs often carried themes of longing, unfulfilled love, and the tension between freedom and captivity—echoing the eagle's dance between sky and earth. Her performances radiated sensuality and defiance, embodying a woman who refused to be tamed by social or romantic constraints. In this way, the eagle becomes a haunting metaphor for her fate: admired from afar, misunderstood up close, and ultimately destroyed by the very passion she stirred.
In some traditions, eagles engage in a dramatic mid-air "death dance," locking talons and spiraling downward—an intense union that blurs the line between ecstasy and annihilation. Habiba Msika’s fatal entanglement with her lover mirrored this descent: a love so obsessive and possessive that it could not bear her freedom. Like the eagle gripped mid-flight, she was pulled from the heights of artistic liberation into a final fall, her life consumed in a spiral of beauty, desire, and violence.
RELEASE
NO.06
HABIBA
MSIKA
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