February 4, 2010 -- Songs about sport are hitting a new peak of popularity in Algeria, where savvy musicians are churning out hits glorifying national pride and the Fennecs' exploits. Algeria now reverberates with these victory songs. The Greens' gains have given a boost to the market; no fewer than 50 performers of sport songs and over 70 such albums have popped up in less than six months. A few years ago, musicians had a hard time even getting albums of this type released, because record companies doubted that such songs had any future. Now, some of the biggest names in Algerian song, such as Abdelkader Chaou and Houari Benchenet, have tried their hand at sport anthems.

And despite Algeria's stinging loss to Egypt in the African Cup of Nations (CAN) semi-finals, albums celebrating the glory of the Greens are selling well. "That's what's working best at the moment," said Ahmed, who runs a record store on Hassiba Ben Bouali St. in central Algiers. "Maybe there's been a slight drop since the CAN, but 60% of sales are going to the groups Torino and Milano, and to Cheba Sonia and Amine Titi, and all of them sing sport songs." Torino and Milano, whose names refer to the famous football clubs of Turin and Milan, are gaining a wider audience lately. "We've been singing for sport clubs for more than 10 years," one of Torino's musicians, Fawzi, told Magharebia. "Milano defended USM Algiers and Torino encouraged Mouloudia Algiers." "We were among the first to move into this sector," said Toufik, who plays for Milano. "Today, everyone's doing it."

While sports music is booming, the music industry is suffering from sales of pirated CDs. "We don't make much money, and the singers themselves are actually getting nothing. We're doing it for Algeria," a representative of the Harmonie label told Magharebia. "We've heard our music playing in all the cars cruising the streets in celebration of the Greens' wins, but we haven't seen the colour of their money," said Fawzi. National Copyright Office officials, who wished to remain anonymous, told Magharebia that the black market had grown so large that they were finding it impossible to fight the problem effectively. "We’ve only got 52 inspectors in all of Algeria," said one official. "It's a difficult and dangerous job. One of our inspectors was tied up for several hours for daring to take steps against piracy. The young people who run the black market think they're acting within their rights."

The Harmonie representative was critical of so-called "last-minute artists" jumping on the Greens' bandwagon. "Ninety percent of the songs ... are what we call 'sandwich songs', made for immediate consumption. Just a few groups stand out from the crowd because of their sincerity," he said. But many ordinary fans feel the hits have an effect far beyond the realm of music. "I've bought a lot of sport albums, and I play them constantly in my car. These hits help prolong the joy we've been given by our national side," a law student named Houssam told Magharebia.

The Algerian sport song has been around since the 1920s. The first sport music group, known as "El Mouloudia", performed for nothing. At that time, Hadj Mahfoud sang for the Union Islamique club in Blida, and sport songs were connected with national identity. "A great sport song isn't tied to a particular time or place. It becomes a point of reference for a very long time," said Sadek Djemâaoui of the group El Bahara.