| Raja Meziane | |
| Native Name: | رجاء مزيان |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Birth Place: | Maghnia, Algeria |
| Occupation: | Singer, songwriter, lawyer, activist |
| Instrument: | Voice |
Raja Meziane (Arabic: رجاء مزيان; born 1988), is an Algerian singer, songwriter, lawyer, and activist.
Meziane was born in 1988 in Maghnia, a town in Tlemcen Province in north-west Algeria, where she grew up in the city of Chouhada. Her father, Ahmed ("H'mida") Meziane, a college professor of natural sciences, died young from a cardiac disease when she was eight years old. Initiated to music and theatre among scouts, she recorded her first album of children's songs at the age of 16.[1] [2]
In 2007, while a law student at the université de Tlemcen, she entered the talent show Alhane wa chabab in which she was a finalist. After releasing two albums, with some songs criticising the regime, in 2013 she attempted to make a feature film for which she wrote the screenplay and the music of the soundtrack. Unable to finance this project, she decided to devote herself to her job as a lawyer. However, the bâtonnier of Algiers refused, with no explanation, to issue her practice certificate.[2]
Having succeeded in neither art nor law, in 2015 she moved to the Czech Republic, where she found an environment conducive to the development of her artistic career.[2]
During October 2019 Meziane was listed as one of the BBC's 100 most influential women of the year.