Quotes from Yasmine Hamdan

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

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

Singing is a very sensual activity! You engage in it with all your senses and your heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon.

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 believe that there is a separation between art and political consciousness.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me.

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.

We all have femininity in us.

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.