Fatima Zohra Badji, better known by her stage name Noura, born in 1942, in Sidi Amar, near Cherchell, Algeria; died June 1, 2014, in Paris, France, was an Algerian singer. She spent her childhood listening to the radio before securing a job at a radio station in the 1950s, where she was hired by station manager Saïd Rezzoug to host a children's program and introduced as a singer by composer Amari Maâmar with the song “El Ouarda”. In 1959, she married songwriter Kamel Hamadi, relocated to Paris, and recorded “Ya Sidi rabi”. She released an album of French-language songs in 1965, and in 1971, her singles “يا ناس أماهو” and “باتي ماركوني” sold one million copies in France, earning her the country's first gold record and a cover on Paris Match. She received the Cultural Medal of the Republic of Tunisia in 1974, was named the star of the Arab Song Festival of Libya in 1975, and was honored by the Algerian Ministry of Culture in 2003 and 2012.
