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" I'm bored, normally, when I travel. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Travel
Bored
Normally
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" 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
" 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
" 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
" All of the Arabic women I grew up listening to or watching had a very strong character. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Character
Women
Up
" 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
" 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
" If you have a drummer who alternates between fast and slow drumming, it can negatively affect the music. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Fast
You
Slow
" Collaborating with other artists is an emotional thing. Obviously, you don't do it unless this person inspires you. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Other
Artists
Emotional
" 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. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Women
Normal
Film
" 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
" 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
" Faith is a very intimate process that involves being sincere and truthful to a spiritual presence. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Spiritual
Process
Presence
" 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 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
" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Mother
Three
Children
" Without freedom and without humor, our cultures can't have a healthy evolution. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Humor
Freedom
Evolution
" 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
" The Arabic music I listen to is extremely edgy. Ironic, sarcastic, sensual, erotic. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Sarcastic
Music
Listen
" 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
" Music liberated me. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Music
Me
Liberated
" 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
" For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Because
Me
Like
" 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
" 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
Us
Together
" I sing 'Beirut' for what the city is for me, but I am also singing as an exile. "
Yasmine Hamdan
I Am
Singing
Sing
" I am interested in exploring encounters where worlds meet and not where they separate. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Meet
Interested
Exploring
" 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
" I think our societies - to certain extent, of course, and to different degrees, but almost with no exception - have always been struggling to come to terms with archaic traditions. "
Yasmine Hamdan
Always
Different
Think
" 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