Omar Boutmazought

Omar Boutmazought was a Moroccan Amazigh singer and lotar player from Khemisset whose deep voice and Middle Atlas repertoire made him a familiar presence in Amazigh music for decades. Born in Khemisset in 1964, he grew up with the songs of the Zemmour and Moyen Atlas country, took to music as a child, and later turned that early attachment into a professional life on stage and record.

He built his craft under the influence of leading Atlas singers including Hammou Oulyazid, Mohamed Rouicha and Mohamed Maghni, then carved a place of his own as a performer of Amazigh and Atlas song. Listeners knew him especially for his command of the lotar, the wooden lute at the heart of much Middle Atlas music. He used the instrument to keep local melodies in circulation while giving them a contemporary edge, and he became one of the names most closely associated with that sound in and beyond Khemisset.

His best known song, Samhi Ayemma Samhi, crossed language lines. The maternal plea in Amazigh found a wide Moroccan audience, including many who did not speak Tamazight, and it became the piece most often cited when colleagues remembered him. Other songs that stayed with fans included Yemma Yemma, Imhsaden and Aawni. Alongside recording and performance he worked as a community and cultural activist, backing local initiatives that promoted Amazigh heritage and encouraged younger artists in the Khemisset area.

In his final years throat cancer forced him off the stage. About a year and a half before his death he stopped working. Treatment meant repeated journeys from Khemisset to the Moulay Abdallah hospital in Sale for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, scans and medicines, costs he struggled to meet after losing his income. In September 2026 he spoke publicly about the late diagnosis, the damage to his voice, and his appeal for help from Morocco's culture ministry. On 9 September dozens of Amazigh artists visited his home with moral support and small financial gifts.

Boutmazought died on the evening of 30 September 2026, aged 62. News of his death brought tributes across the Amazigh artistic community. Funeral rites were expected in his hometown of Khemisset. He leaves a catalogue rooted in Atlas song, a signature lotar style, and a reputation as an artist who treated cultural preservation as work both on and off the stage.