I don't believe that there is a separation between art and political consciousness.
Yasmine Hamdan
I wanted to pursue my own thing - I had desires, ideas I wanted to accomplish, and I needed to be on my own for that.
'Al Jamilat' is not just feminist. It's an album with songs that feature women: women who are in love, rebellious women, political activists, women who are more submissive, women who are in charge.
I met Jim Jarmusch when I started recording my album 'Ya Nass.' He was writing the script for 'Only Lovers Left Alive.' Jarmusch was always a great inspiration to me, way before meeting him. Working with him was fantastic.
For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space.
We all have femininity in us.
When I read the Koran or hear it read, the images and the poetry, the sound of the language is very inspiring.
It's normal; Arab women have always been very active at the forefront of culture - as film producers since the 1920s; as singers, dancers, choreographers, writers for much longer than that.
I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me.
I don't think there is only one Arab culture or a pure Arabness. We are very multiple, especially our generation, which is very multilayered.
A lot of Arabic composers such as Mohammed Abdel Wahab mixed sounds and instruments from all over the world. It's important to be able to propose new ways and new sounds without being stigmatised, censored or put aside.
I was raised by strong women, and the role models I had in music and cinema were strong, too - liberated and provocative.
It's interesting to be at once an insider and outsider. It's a way of learning how to find your way freely without the need of conforming or belonging.
I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself.
I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences.
My dad was a brilliant civil engineer. My parents later divorced, but we lived in Abu Dhabi, Greece, Kuwait.
It's complicated for my music to be accepted, even in Lebanon and the Arabic world - I sing in Arabic, but there's no lute, no classical instruments. Maybe with the Internet opening things up, things will change.
I was born in the middle of Lebanon's civil war.
Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum.
Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies.
Without freedom and without humor, our cultures can't have a healthy evolution.
When I imagine feminine characters in my songs, they're often bold, strong, passionate, militant, witty, sensual, dangerous. I see those characters as skillful witnesses, figures of change and awakening.
When I started doing music, it was out of despair and boredom. I got passionate about it, and I felt that it allowed me to become somebody: an artist who explores her different identities.
The Arab world is mediatised in a way that gives too much space to these people - puritans, extremists, whatever you want to call them. There are a lot more people like me in the Middle East than you might think.
There are many positive values that come with a Muslim upbringing. But when religion becomes about rules and hierarchies, when it starts to feel like a prison, I'm not interested.
Collaborating with other artists is an emotional thing. Obviously, you don't do it unless this person inspires you.
Singing is a very sensual activity! You engage in it with all your senses and your heart.
I went from the most underground band in the world to signing with Madonna's producer and a record label that is extremely mainstream - it was interesting.
I've always had a sense that I am doing something very important, something vital.
I'm inspired by many artists whose language I don't understand.
I sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge.
I sing 'Beirut' for what the city is for me, but I am also singing as an exile.
When the public doesn't understand me, it's a battle. So when I choose words, I choose them for their musicality, rhythm, and sense, and I choose the right dialect to express that.
When I started, I didn't know how to sing in Arabic - it's a very complex and sophisticated music full of codes and modes and quarter-tones.
I always had this crisis: where do I come from? I was never an insider, never an outsider; I was always in the middle. But it means I never have borders in my head.
With Soapkills, we were lucky. We started at a time of transition where things were not ready, nothing was available.
Maybe I was blessed that my main drive was purely selfish. I needed to make something, make my life better, wider, have poetry in my life, have something that gives me hope on an everyday basis. That was my main drive all along, really.
All of the Arabic women I grew up listening to or watching had a very strong character.
Because of the Lebanese civil war, I had a scattered childhood. I had to build my own connections to each country we moved to.
There should be no borders, race, colours, or ethnical considerations when it comes to music and creativity.
I'm bored, normally, when I travel.
Music liberated me.
I have learned to create from a hybridized point of view. It's an asset - something rather liberating.
I have a sense of mission in a way. I've always worked on being free, as a woman and as an artist.
World music can be sometimes like the lumber room in which all the non-English singers are dumped. When you are singing in Arabic, no matter what your style of music or artistic proposition is, you are faced with some of that reality.
When I go to Beirut, I don't drive. It's traumatizing to drive there.
I had the urge to face my own limitation, and I needed to be bigger. I needed to be more professional and be in a more competitive environment because I wanted to grow as an artist. That's why I went to Europe.
You do not start by working on society; you start by yourself to be a freer person and a more independent person.
Every time I go to Beirut, I see people and the quality of life going slowly from bad to worse, and from worse to even worse.
Faith is a very intimate process that involves being sincere and truthful to a spiritual presence.
