A pioneering voice in contemporary Arabic music and the star of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive returns to Ljubljana after nine years, when she performed for the second time at the Druga Godba festival, and after a long musical hiatus.
For Yasmine Hamdan, the break was both an act of defiance and a response to a world that felt increasingly estranged – a refusal to create under anyone’s terms but her own. “That’s why I decided to stop, and to return to making music only when it became truly essential,” she told The New Arab. And evidently, the moment came: this September saw the release of her third album, I Remember I Forget, the long-awaited successor to her acclaimed records Ya Nass (2013) and Al Jamilat (2017). The album’s ideas were forged in Sicily, then brought to completion in collaboration with producer Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague), Palestinian poet Anas Alaili, and Syrian composer Omar Harb.
Writing about the new album, Ema Erna Weber observes: “The electronic instrumental pulse resonates with a generous dose of darkness, accompanied by introspection. This manifests in the singer’s assured delivery, which turns away from agitation and slogans toward the expression of pain – reaching the highest level of authenticity. The album’s sonic landscape is built upon tension, layered with a gentle yet eloquent and no less genuine sense of resistance. In doing so, it confronts apathy and, through its lyrics, reclaims the meaning of originality.” (Radio Študent, Tolpa bumov)
The standout track Shmaali, Hamdan explains, “Contains loss, but also humour. Even though it can be sad, I wanted it to be a victorious, ‘danceable’ story. I’ve always wanted my work to come from resistance – from connecting with my own strength. To show that you can suffer and still remain strong.”
Join us for an evening with a mesmerising storyteller and uncompromising artist whose songs trace the delicate threads of memory, identity, and resilience, rendered with rare grace and emotional clarity.
Tickets on sale.
Co-produced by Druga Godba and Kino Šiška.
