Yasmine Hamdan’s Al Jamilat: A mirror of a beautiful rebel

BEIRUT: Perhaps there is still more to music than just lyrics that fill us with affection and love. Anger, rage, and rebellion can also be felt through music.  

That is a slight angle of what might be perceived from the Lebanese underground singer Yasmine Hamdan’s new album “Al Jamilat” (The beautiful ones); and her latest video clip “Balad” (country) which was released on 25 September.

Interviewing Hamdan during her last visit to Lebanon gives the feeling as if one is listening to her songs while driving in the streets of Beirut. A mixture of solitude, energy, vivid colors, harmony, with a glimpse of anger and hope is what describes her music.

Hamdan, who was first known to many Lebanese youth as a singer in the band “Soapkills” in the 90s, is now touring in a number of countries, such as Germany, Canada, Norway, U.S., and others. She will finalize her tour in a concert in Lebanon on 7 December, as she will be opening “Beirut and Beyond” festival.

“Balad”, her latest video clip which was produced by her husband Elia Suleiman, reveals an angry citizen taking over the streets then the parliament. Yasmine’s body language seems as if it goes along with the song perfectly; contradicting anger with kind feelings and hope.

Hamdan tells Annahar that Suleiman, who is also a filmmaker, got the idea when he heard the song “Balad” translated as “The situation of the country,” adding that he was involved in the album entirely. “It took him a lot of time to do it, and he worked with a production company and many other friends,” she says.

The crew was around 40 people in the first day, and the video clip was shot with fewer people on the second day. “Everything went so smoothly,” Hamdan notes.

The sensitive pop-Arabic artist talks politics, music, and emotions; she also seems to mingle with all these fields, which affect many people around the world in their daily lives.

“We are all not free in a way; the organisation and space. People are unique to this place, and the video clip comes to resemble the silent majority trying to tell the rest of the people things we are living in our daily life in the country.

Hamdan then adds that “everything around us in the country is creating fragile people in order to control them.”

The singer, whose songs and music are full of political and personal messages, expresses that she is “a bit angry” because she has hoped that some things will change, but continues to say that “life is never a fairy tale.”

She feels that “the world is heading towards something apocalyptic.”

Her target audience is anyone who feels the music and relates to it, yet this is what could be sensed from her music, and not what she takes into account, since she never thinks of a target audience.

“Imagine counting my audience when I make music,” she says while laughing, “if I did so, it will become very unromantic.”

Following Hamdan’s work for years, one could sense the shift she made in “Al-Jamilat.” This time, Hamdan was largely involved in the production of her album. “I worked on 80% of the recordings, and I wanted to lead,” she said.

According to her official website, Hamdan jointly produced “Al Jamilat” with UK producers Luke Smith (Foals, Depeche Mode, Lily Allen) and Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Carl Barät); she also recorded with contributions from NY musicians Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, John Zorn, Marc Ribot) and Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley.

Hamdan, who resides in Paris, is enjoying her stay in Lebanon. “The people are so generous, and that warms my heart,” she says.

Yet, some things still make musicians sad.

“There are so many energies in one small place in Lebanon; and unfortunately, many of them are adding to the corruption in the country,” she says.

“Lebanon is avant-garde in what’s happening now; the body language of people tells a lot about what they are experiencing in this country,” she says, adding, “I don’t want to be in a place where I'm in contact with these things.”

Hamdan is really happy to present her new album on December 7 in a concert at the Grand Factory in Lebanon. “The place looks really great, and I wanted a place that is easily accessible to people,” she tells Annahar.