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" 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
Related Quotes:
" My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Played
Family
Communism
" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Mother
Three
Children
" 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
" I am interested in exploring encounters where worlds meet and not where they separate. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Meet
Interested
Exploring
" If you have a drummer who alternates between fast and slow drumming, it can negatively affect the music. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Fast
You
Slow
" I have a sense of mission in a way. I've always worked on being free, as a woman and as an artist. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Free
Artist
Mission
" 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
" 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've always fought any form of censorship. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Fought
Form
Censorship
" All of the Arabic women I grew up listening to or watching had a very strong character. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Character
Women
Up
" 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 sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Challenge
Sing
Statement
" 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
" 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'm bored, normally, when I travel. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Travel
Bored
Normally
" The Arabic music I listen to is extremely edgy. Ironic, sarcastic, sensual, erotic. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Sarcastic
Music
Listen
" 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
" 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 studied psychology at university. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Studied
University
Psychology
" 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
" 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 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
" 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
" When it comes to the lyrics, I write about my own perception of things and use characters for that. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Things
Own
Perception
" 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
" 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 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
" 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
" I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Myself
Bar
Very
" 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