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" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

" I studied psychology at university. "

" Music liberated me. "

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