Exberliner Issue 138, May 2015

JOY WELLBOY
06.05. Berghain Kantine
ODESZA
07.05. Gretchen
ERRORS
17.05. Bang Bang Club
EAST INDIA
YOUTH
19.05. Berghain Kantine
MAN WITHOUT
COUNTRY
26.05. Bang Bang Club
TORRES
03.06. Privatclub
AUSTRA
10.06. Berghain
ILOVE-
MAKONNEN
30.06. Postbahnhof
MAJOR LAZER
08.10. Columbiahalle
ROMANO
11.10. Lido
TANIA_FEGHALI
meltbooking.com
facebook.com/wearemeltbooking
very funny to sing “Aziza”. It is sexual harassment
but with a lot of humour. That is, it is not serious
but the message is serious. But, you know, the
character of Aziza is also ridiculous, because she
is also kind of playing the game. It takes two to
play in our society. So, for me, we women in Arab
society have to somehow stop playing games if
we want some change.
Did you get a chance to read the interview
with Björk in Pitchfork about the challenges
of being a female musician? I haven’t
read the interview but I heard about it. She has a
point about women in general, that we’re under
huge social pressure. Even if we’re going toward
equality in some places, I don’t think that this
is happening everywhere. If we look at facts, it
is difficult for a woman to exist and survive and
sustain in a music world that is very much ruled
by men. You can have a lot of attention on you,
of course, because you are a woman, but you
have to also go through a lot of pressure about
the way you look, the seductive aspect. When I
started my music, my language was the weapon I
had in my hand to rebel.
In the end, it all comes down to language.
For me, language went through my sexuality,
through my being a woman. Doing Arabic music,
it was also a weapon for me, to kind of be political
in my way. It was how I rebelled vis-a-vis all
these stigmas that I did not identify with or I
perceived as racist. I didn’t see myself as an Arab
doing music, but I wanted to sing in Arabic. It
was important to me to carry on with this language
and take it to places and try things with it,
and it is also a very rough material and very raw,
so many things can be done. It’s that space that
I kind of designed for myself. I think that, for
me, these difficulties were painful but were part
of the pleasure I got because every time I succeeded
at something, I won something for me. It
was a great victory.
The personal was political. And it was not
only about me; it was also about the way I wanted
the world to look. I refuse to be identified as Arabic,
or “this is world music”. But I also found myself
rejected in many places because of me being
an Arab or singing in Arabic. Everybody wants me
to sing in English, I love to sing in English, but
for me it was important to sing in Arabic [laughs].
You cannot make difficult choices and expect that
it will be easy. I mean, if it was easy it would not
be fun. I never wanted things to be easy. n
Yasmine
Hamdan in
five dates
1997 Her Beirut-based
rock band Lombrix
breaks up; she and
fellow member Zeid
Hamdan form Soapkills,
the Middle East’s first
electronica act.
2002 Moves to Paris for graduate studies in
cinema. One of her collaborators is the
Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, whom she
would marry.
2007 After teaming up with French touch
master Mirwais as Y.A.S., releases 2009’s
Aräbology (AZ), sampling both Kraftwerk &
Madonna.
2012 Releases self-titled solo debut.
2013 Crammed Discs puts out an expanded
version as Ya Nass, after which Hamdan steals
the show in Only Lovers Left Alive.
ADRIAN MESKOTIF
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