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" 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. "

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" 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

" Egyptians are quite incredible people. They have everything: the culture, the music, the scenes. So much of Arab music and art started there. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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

World

" I was raised by strong women, and the role models I had in music and cinema were strong, too - liberated and provocative. "

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

" I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself. "

" 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. "

" With Soapkills, we were lucky. We started at a time of transition where things were not ready, nothing was available. "

" Collaborating with other artists is an emotional thing. Obviously, you don't do it unless this person inspires you. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" We all have femininity in us. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Femininity

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

" 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. "

" When I read the Koran or hear it read, the images and the poetry, the sound of the language is very inspiring. "

" 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. "

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

" I have learned to create from a hybridized point of view. It's an asset - something rather liberating. "

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

Yasmine Hamdan

Character

Women

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

" There is something spiritual about art that connects us with ourselves and with others; it's really about coming together and creating bridges. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Bridges

Together

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I have a sense of mission in a way. I've always worked on being free, as a woman and as an artist. "

" My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon. "

" 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. "

" I've always fought any form of censorship. "