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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

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

" The Arabic music I listen to is extremely edgy. Ironic, sarcastic, sensual, erotic. "

" When I go to Beirut, I don't drive. It's traumatizing to drive there. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Drive

Beirut

" Without freedom and without humor, our cultures can't have a healthy evolution. "

" For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Because

" Faith is a very intimate process that involves being sincere and truthful to a spiritual presence. "

" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "

" It's interesting to be at once an insider and outsider. It's a way of learning how to find your way freely without the need of conforming or belonging. "

" I studied psychology at university. "

" Maybe I was blessed that my main drive was purely selfish. I needed to make something, make my life better, wider, have poetry in my life, have something that gives me hope on an everyday basis. That was my main drive all along, really. "

" 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. "

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

" When it comes to the lyrics, I write about my own perception of things and use characters for that. "

" Music liberated me. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Music

Liberated

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Choose

Words

" 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. "

" I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Desires

Consequences

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

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

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

Yasmine Hamdan

Character

Women

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

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