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" I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me. "

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" I sing 'Beirut' for what the city is for me, but I am also singing as an exile. "

" Because of the Lebanese civil war, I had a scattered childhood. I had to build my own connections to each country we moved to. "

" I was born in the middle of Lebanon's civil war. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies. "

" There should be no borders, race, colours, or ethnical considerations when it comes to music and creativity. "

" 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. "

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" You do not start by working on society; you start by yourself to be a freer person and a more independent person. "

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" I'm bored, normally, when I travel. "

" 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. "

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" '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. "

" 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 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. "

" Women are a minority the same way gay people are. "

" I am interested in exploring encounters where worlds meet and not where they separate. "

" 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. "

" All of the Arabic women I grew up listening to or watching had a very strong character. "

" 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. "

" If you have a drummer who alternates between fast and slow drumming, it can negatively affect the music. "

" 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 sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge. "

" Music liberated me. "

" My dad was a brilliant civil engineer. My parents later divorced, but we lived in Abu Dhabi, Greece, Kuwait. "