For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space.
I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself.
When I imagine feminine characters in my songs, they're often bold, strong, passionate, militant, witty, sensual, dangerous. I see those characters as skillful witnesses, figures of change and awakening.
'Al Jamilat' is not just feminist. It's an album with songs that feature women: women who are in love, rebellious women, political activists, women who are more submissive, women who are in charge.
Without freedom and without humor, our cultures can't have a healthy evolution.
I was raised by strong women, and the role models I had in music and cinema were strong, too - liberated and provocative.
I don't believe that there is a separation between art and political consciousness.
Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies.
When I started doing music, it was out of despair and boredom. I got passionate about it, and I felt that it allowed me to become somebody: an artist who explores her different identities.
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.
It's interesting to be at once an insider and outsider. It's a way of learning how to find your way freely without the need of conforming or belonging.
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.
It's complicated for my music to be accepted, even in Lebanon and the Arabic world - I sing in Arabic, but there's no lute, no classical instruments. Maybe with the Internet opening things up, things will change.
We all have femininity in us.
I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me.
My dad was a brilliant civil engineer. My parents later divorced, but we lived in Abu Dhabi, Greece, Kuwait.
I was born in the middle of Lebanon's civil war.
I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences.
Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum.
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.
