Mawazine 2025: ElGrande Toto shatters OLM Souissi

The OLM Souissi stage, the beating heart of the Mawazine Festival, still reverberates with echoes of a historic night. For the closing of this 20th edition, ElGrande Toto, Casablanca’s wild child, transformed the place into a boiling cauldron, carried by a crowd of over 400,000 souls, all shouting their love for the rapper reinventing Morocco’s sound. The first Moroccan rapper to hold this legendary stage alone before passing the baton to American Lil Baby, Toto delivered a masterful show, a grand mass where Darija, French, and English mingled in a virtuosic flow, both outrageous and poignant.

Taha Fahssi, aka ElGrande Toto, is not just a rapper. He is a phenomenon, a mirror held up to a generation that recognizes itself in his trilingual rhymes and his flow weaving between melancholy and bravado. Yesterday, from the first notes of Maghribi, the audience went into a trance. The heavy bass shook the ground, strobe lights tore through the night, and Toto took possession of the stage like a general rallying his troops. “This is for Morocco, this is for you!” he shouted, triggering a wave of euphoria that made the barriers sway.

The show reflected the artist: a mix of spontaneity and mastery. Between Mghayer, Staline, Salade Coco, and Pablo, each track was an explosion, a lyrical uppercut telling stories of the street, broken hopes, but also the burning ambition of a kid from Casa turned superstar. Fans, hanging on his every word and inflection, lived through him. Then came a suspended, almost unreal moment: Toto, suddenly vulnerable, brought his son on stage, a raw emotional instant that froze the crowd before making it roar again.

From the neighborhood to the charts, the undisputed king

At the peak of his set, Toto dropped a bombshell: his single Blue Love just crossed the historic milestone of one billion online streams, a first for a Moroccan track. The already electrified crowd exploded with pride. “We did it, Morocco did it!” he shouted, tears in his eyes. This billion is more than a number: it is proof that Moroccan rap, carried by Toto, has carved a path to the summit of the global game, competing with those who dominate the charts.

ElGrande Toto is the story of a kid from BNJ (Benjdia) who conquered Olympia, Zenith, and even the global top of Spotify with over a billion streams. The first Moroccan rapper to earn a platinum record in France with Qui sait (a duet with Niro) and a diamond record for Love nwantiti with Ckay, he embodies the boldness of a Moroccan scene no longer content with the margins. At Mawazine, he was not just an artist but a symbol: that of a young, diverse Morocco daring to assert itself on the world stage.

Born in 1996 in Casablanca, Taha Fahssi did not follow a set path. Raised on Bob Marley’s reggae, B.B. King’s blues, Pink Floyd’s rock, Metallica’s metal, and the rai of Cheb Khaled and Bilal, he grew up in a world where poetry coexisted with violence. A self-proclaimed troublemaker, more comfortable in krump battles than in the classrooms of Fatima Ezzahra high school, he forged his style in the alleys of Casa, between strolls and struggles. He started rapping under the name 7 Boo before becoming ElGrande Toto, releasing 7elmat Ado and Smou7at. But it was Pablo that propelled him, a track where he unleashed his full power, imposing a detached style, catchy melodies, and a raw, unfiltered pen.

ElGrande Toto: flows, records, glory

Last night on the OLM Souissi stage, he carried this ambition with fierce energy. The light shows, visual projections—all contributed to anchoring his show in a Moroccan identity while engaging with hip-hop’s universality. When he launched into Razones, the crowd exploded, smartphones raised like torches, capturing the moment when Moroccan rap was written in capital letters.

The audience was a character in its own right. From teens in oversized sweatshirts to families discovering the vibe, all were united by the same fervor. Signs saying “Toto, our pride” and Moroccan flags waved in the crowd said it all: ElGrande Toto is not just a rapper, he is a voice, a standard-bearer, a kid from the people turned icon. And when he ended his set with a vibrant “Long live Morocco!”, an entire people responded with a roar that will resonate long after the festival’s end. Mawazine 2025, on its 20th anniversary, could not have dreamed of a better ambassador.

As the lights went out on OLM Souissi, one thing was clear: ElGrande Toto did not just give a concert. He wrote a page of history, that of a Moroccan rap without borders, carried by a youth dreaming big. Rabat, that night, was the capital of rap made in Morocco. And Toto, its undisputed king. This is what it means to be ElGrande!