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Yasmine Hamdan’s debut solo album, written and produced in collaboration with Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague).

Yasmine became known with Soapkills, the duo she founded in Beyrouth, which must have been the first indie/electronic band to appear in the Middle East. The music of Soapkills quickly became the soundtrack to the vibrant, young arts scene which developed in postwar Lebanon, the band gradually acquired an emblematic status and, to this day, Yasmine is considered as an undergound icon throughout the Arab world.

Yasmine subsequently moved to Paris, and started working with Mirwais (who was part of French electronic new wave band Taxi Girl in the 80s, and produced/co-wrote Madonna’s “Music” as well as the “American Life” album). Under the Y.A.S. moniker, Yasmine and Mirwais recorded the “Arabology” album, which came out in 2009.

After collaborating with CocoRosie for a while, Yasmine teamed up with Nouvelle Vague mastermind Marc Collin to create this mesmerizing opus.

In order to write the melodies and the lyrics for these songs, Yasmine drew from the repertoire and the attitude of great Arab women singers from the middle of the 20th century, including some little-known or half-forgotten figures, such as Aisha El Marta, Nagat El Saghira, Asmahan, Shadia, Mounira El Mehdeyya and many more. Yasmine (who is an avid collector of records from that era) is inspired by these women, by the mischievous sensuality and the subtle, ironic social criticism which pervades their lyrics, and which is reminiscent of a period of freedom and emancipation in the history of Middle-Eastern societies.

Yasmine Hamdan first made waves in the music scene with the pioneering Beirut indie electronic duo Soapkills, which she co-founded with Zeid Hamdan in the late 1990s.

Since then, she has earned international acclaim as a solo singer-songwriter and producer, elegantly entwining far-ranging elements, from pan-Arabic roots and pop and poetic lyrics, to electronica, soul and guitar melodies.

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