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" We all have femininity in us. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Femininity
Us
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" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
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Head
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" For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space. "
Yasmine Hamdan
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Me
Like
" I love Khaliji music; it's very inspiring. "
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Music
Very
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" The Arabic music I listen to is extremely edgy. Ironic, sarcastic, sensual, erotic. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Sarcastic
Music
Listen
" I had an Arabic background. but I lived a very scattered childhood. I didn't belong to any one culture, which meant I didn't have musical geographies in my head. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Childhood
Culture
Lived
" 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
" Because of the Lebanese civil war, I had a scattered childhood. I had to build my own connections to each country we moved to. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Country
War
Connections
" Women are a minority the same way gay people are. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Minority
People
Same
" Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Transformation
Change
Resistance
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Music
Opening
Internet
" 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
" 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
" When I read the Koran or hear it read, the images and the poetry, the sound of the language is very inspiring. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Language
Poetry
Sound
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Her
Doing
Boredom
" I sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Challenge
Sing
Statement
" I'm inspired by many artists whose language I don't understand. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Whose
Inspired
Language
" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Mother
Three
Children
" I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Desires
Consequences
Follow
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Time
Bad
Life
" As an artist, you need to be true to yourself and free and not put yourself in a box that contradicts with what you feel is needed for a song. "
Yasmine Hamdan
You
Yourself
True
" Singing is a very sensual activity! You engage in it with all your senses and your heart. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Activity
You
Singing
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Values
Positive
Feel
" I was raised by strong women, and the role models I had in music and cinema were strong, too - liberated and provocative. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Music
Women
Too
" Collaborating with other artists is an emotional thing. Obviously, you don't do it unless this person inspires you. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Other
Artists
Emotional
" I have learned to create from a hybridized point of view. It's an asset - something rather liberating. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Point
View
Point Of View
" My dad was a brilliant civil engineer. My parents later divorced, but we lived in Abu Dhabi, Greece, Kuwait. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Later
Parents
Brilliant
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Choose
Me
Words
" I don't believe that there is a separation between art and political consciousness. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Believe
Separation
Political