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" 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

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

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

" 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. "

" 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

" Music liberated me. "

Yasmine Hamdan

Music

Liberated

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

" 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. "

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

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

" I wanted to pursue my own thing - I had desires, ideas I wanted to accomplish, and I needed to be on my own for that. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" I don't believe that there is a separation between art and political consciousness. "

" 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. "

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

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

Yasmine Hamdan

Because

" I had an Arabic background. but I lived a very scattered childhood. I didn't belong to any one culture, which meant I didn't have musical geographies in my head. "

" 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. "

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

" I'm inspired by many artists whose language I don't understand. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I've always had a sense that I am doing something very important, something vital. "

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "