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" When I go to Beirut, I don't drive. It's traumatizing to drive there. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Go
Drive
Beirut
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" I am interested in exploring encounters where worlds meet and not where they separate. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Meet
Interested
Exploring
" Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Transformation
Change
Resistance
" 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
" You do not start by working on society; you start by yourself to be a freer person and a more independent person. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Yourself
Start
You
" 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
Always
Head
Crisis
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" There should be no borders, race, colours, or ethnical considerations when it comes to music and creativity. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Music
Race
Borders
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Passionate
Change
Bold
" 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
" I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Culture
Explore
Me
" I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Myself
Bar
Very
" I'm bored, normally, when I travel. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Travel
Bored
Normally
" 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
" Faith is a very intimate process that involves being sincere and truthful to a spiritual presence. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Spiritual
Process
Presence
" 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
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Great
Alive
Meeting
" I sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Challenge
Sing
Statement
" 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'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
" 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 love Khaliji music; it's very inspiring. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Music
Very
Love
" 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
" For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Because
Me
Like
" With Soapkills, we were lucky. We started at a time of transition where things were not ready, nothing was available. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Nothing
Ready
Time
" We all have femininity in us. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Femininity
Us
" 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
" 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