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BORN IN BEIRUT and living in Paris, Yasmine Hamdan is one half of YAS; the other half is international superstar producer Mirwais. Combining Yasmine’s Arabic vocals with the sort of electro-pop beats that Mirwais employed to breathe new life into Madonna’s music career, YAS’s output is tailor-made to bridge the gap between the Arab world and the Western pop charts.
Mirwais has been outspoken about his political ambitions for the music, extolling the virtues of presenting a clear and positive Arab identity to counteract the negative images of Arab culture often seen in Western media. But while Yasmine acknowledges the political implications of such crossover music, she warns against oversimplification, pointing out that she doesn’t have a single, simple message and that all her songs are made up of “layers of signs and things I want to talk about”.
It’s not surprising that the Lebanese Parisienne should feel comfortable with this complex mix of Western and Arabic influences. Raised in Beirut, Europe and the Gulf, she says she doesn’t feel entirely part of any nationality, and speaks of the freedom and alienation that come from being at once inside and outside of a culture.
“I’m an outsider to Arabic culture because I’ve lived a lot of my time outside of Arabic countries and I never really grew up in an Arabic society. I went to school in the Gulf countries but I was not completely integrated in social conventions – I was not traditionally raised. But also I feel that I’m an insider because I have been raised by two parents who are Arabic and who are very proud to come from this culture, and so I have these two, let’s say, tendencies, and in the middle somewhere is what has influenced my work.”
She continues to move between cultures, but spends the majority of her time in Paris because of the professional opportunities the city affords. She’s signed to Universal France and her agents, her musical director and the musicians she plays with are all based in Paris, but there’s a sense that really she doesn’t care where she finds herself as long as she can work.
“My main direction is always that I want to sing in Arabic,” she confirms. “It’s important because for me it’s a playground. It’s like a material that is very broad – it’s exciting because you can do a lot of things with it that have not been done before.” www.myspace.com/yaspopmusic
WORDS Steve Watson
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