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" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Interesting
Most
Producer
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" Without freedom and without humor, our cultures can't have a healthy evolution. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Humor
Freedom
Evolution
" I sing 'Beirut' for what the city is for me, but I am also singing as an exile. "
Yasmine Hamdan
I Am
Singing
Sing
" I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Myself
Bar
Very
" All of the Arabic women I grew up listening to or watching had a very strong character. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Character
Women
Up
" I'm bored, normally, when I travel. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Travel
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Normally
" I studied psychology at university. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Studied
University
Psychology
" I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Desires
Consequences
Follow
" When it comes to the lyrics, I write about my own perception of things and use characters for that. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Things
Own
Perception
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Need
Learning
Interesting
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Space
Me
World
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Singer
You
Public
" My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Played
Family
Communism
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Over
New
Without
" I'm Muslim but not really. My family did not care. And I always managed to skip religion classes when I was living in the Gulf, even when they were obligatory. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Religion
Always
Care
" I was born in the middle of Lebanon's civil war. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Born
War
Middle
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Professional
Artist
Environment
" I think our societies - to certain extent, of course, and to different degrees, but almost with no exception - have always been struggling to come to terms with archaic traditions. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Always
Different
Think
" Singing is a very sensual activity! You engage in it with all your senses and your heart. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Activity
You
Singing
" Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Transformation
Change
Resistance
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Women
Normal
Film
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Started
How
Music
" When I go to Beirut, I don't drive. It's traumatizing to drive there. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Go
Drive
Beirut
" We all have femininity in us. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Femininity
Us
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Culture
Generation
Only
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
My Own
Pursue
Own
" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Mother
Three
Children
" Egyptians are quite incredible people. They have everything: the culture, the music, the scenes. So much of Arab music and art started there. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Everything
People
Culture
" Back in Kuwait, I had started listening to a lot of English language music: western music, I would say - Kate Bush and Radiohead - and I loved Chet Baker, Etna James, a lot of singers and a lot of bands. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Language
Listening
Music
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
World
Music
Reality
" The Arabic world was very interesting in the 1920s to '60s: there was something booming culturally, and I found my culture very desirable when I listened to these songs. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Very
Interesting
Culture