Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to a very special return episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio. My name's Jordan Roundag good enough
Speaker 1: about me Today, we're thrilled to be coming to you
Speaker 1: live from the twenty twenty six Web Summit conference in Doha, Guitar.
Speaker 1: Our journey to this warm and welcoming country has been
Speaker 1: unforgettably fascinating as we've shared ideas about cutting edge technology.
Speaker 1: I've even had the opportunity to meet a robot or
Speaker 1: two on this trip. But it also gave us the
Speaker 1: opportunity to re examine the things that make us deeply human,
Speaker 1: and one of those things is music. It's something that
Speaker 1: crosses all generations and cultures. I was extremely eager to
Speaker 1: speak to a notable musician from the region, and my
Speaker 1: host delivered in a major way. I was so happy
Speaker 1: to spend some time with Donna Almir, who's being hailed
Speaker 1: as the first Katari musical superstar. As we'll discuss in
Speaker 1: the episode, musical superstardom is a relatively new phenomenon over here.
Speaker 1: She was tapped to perform with the opening and closing
Speaker 1: ceremonies at the twenty twenty two World Cup, which was
Speaker 1: hosted in Qatar, and just last year she was chosen
Speaker 1: to represent her country at the inner Vision competition I
Speaker 1: think Eurovision, but not in Europe. And when she's not
Speaker 1: performing for a global audience of millions, Donna serves as
Speaker 1: director at the music Lab Qutar, where she helps young
Speaker 1: singers find their voice. She's a cultural ambassador, a pioneer,
Speaker 1: a filmmaker, a teacher.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite guests we've ever had.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy our conversation, Donna, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule
Speaker 1: to be here at Web Summit twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
Speaker 2: I have never seen anything like this. I have seen
Speaker 2: things here today in the past couple days that I
Speaker 2: have never seen in my entire life.
Speaker 1: I've seen robot dogs, I've seen robot humans. What's the
Speaker 1: craziest thing that you've seen here?
Speaker 3: Garlic tech?
Speaker 2: What is garlic tech?
Speaker 3: I actually don't know what it is. What it passed by?
Speaker 3: Definitely something about technology. But I was like, I'll definitely
Speaker 3: be allergic to that. I'm allergic to garlic.
Speaker 2: I've never met anyone allergic to garlic.
Speaker 3: A vampire dude.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, Okay, that is good. Well, thank you for
Speaker 2: coming out during the day. Then, I know that's very difficult.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. It is with the sun. Oh gosh,
Speaker 3: too much.
Speaker 2: Well, so much. I want to ask you about with
Speaker 2: your music.
Speaker 1: When you were selected by a Qatar's Ministry of Culture
Speaker 1: to represent the country at innervision, that is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge honor and a huge responsibility.
Speaker 2: What did that responsibility mean to you personally?
Speaker 3: To be honest, it means the world. I've never believed
Speaker 3: actually in competition for art in general and for voices,
Speaker 3: because I believe that voices are different, your voice different,
Speaker 3: depend on your body and mind is different. So I
Speaker 3: cannot compare you unless you're out of pitch.
Speaker 2: Of course, teaching.
Speaker 3: What's that comparing exact exactly? So for me, going to
Speaker 3: intervision was something else. At the beginning, I was a
Speaker 3: bit scared, like, really, maybe I won't like it, maybe
Speaker 3: it's going to be a bit of let's say political,
Speaker 3: And at the end of the day it was something else.
Speaker 3: I've met twenty two people from different countries and we
Speaker 3: appreciated our culture differences, we appreciated our talent, and we
Speaker 3: became all friends. Until today we text each other we
Speaker 3: post for each other, people from Serbia, from Belarus, from Brazil,
Speaker 3: from everywhere, and of course people from Saudi and the
Speaker 3: United Arab Emirates. It's fantastic. Was in a beautiful experience.
Speaker 3: I enjoyed it so much. And to be honest, being
Speaker 3: there in Russia representing Katar was a different experience where
Speaker 3: I've never been to Russia in my life.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: And they literally showed us their culture. Since the minute
Speaker 3: I landed, they were like, eat the bread and I
Speaker 3: don't know aletrogy and I was like, I don't know
Speaker 3: anything about it, but that's cool. And they've been asking
Speaker 3: me and interview me. It was really really good. To
Speaker 3: be honest, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: That's why I feel about being here. I've never been
Speaker 2: to Daha before.
Speaker 3: And how is your experience?
Speaker 2: Everybody has been so eager to share amazing in the
Speaker 2: nicest way, and that's been so wonderful to experience.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that people showed themselves to you go
Speaker 3: and you felt this way. That's amazing because it was
Speaker 3: all about giving and sharing and it is it feels warm.
Speaker 3: I feel warm in my country whenever we travel. I
Speaker 3: just want to come back went home. I need Yeah,
Speaker 3: it is my home. So yeah.
Speaker 2: There was a really cute moment at the end of
Speaker 2: when you performed at Inner Vision where you were presented
Speaker 2: with a I can never say, they're going to laugh
Speaker 2: at me, bala laca.
Speaker 3: Well, I was surprised because a lot of the things
Speaker 3: we've done, we were rehearsed to do certain things. Oh
Speaker 3: that wasn't really it's no, it was all real. But
Speaker 3: they tell you they're gonna come now and ask you
Speaker 3: about this. For example, answer it's not necessarily the same
Speaker 3: answer I answer every time, but it's something that they're
Speaker 3: going to ask you about this. So when they came
Speaker 3: to me during the show, they knew that I wanted
Speaker 3: to buy a guitar because I love guitars. I love
Speaker 3: guitar so much.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that. I love guitar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh my god. The funny moment at the show,
Speaker 3: it was so funny because I was I mentioned that
Speaker 3: I didn't have cash because in Russia you don't have cash.
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't.
Speaker 3: You don't have I mean you don't have a credit card.
Speaker 3: You cannot use your cared card, but you need you
Speaker 3: need cash all the time. So I saw a guitar.
Speaker 3: It was a Fender. I guess it was a Stellar
Speaker 3: Caster and it was purple Lavender.
Speaker 2: I like that, very prince very.
Speaker 3: And it was from the nineties, oh class, so it
Speaker 3: was classic and I was like, how much is that?
Speaker 3: It was like nineteen thousand reals. I was like, what.
Speaker 2: Cash on me?
Speaker 3: I want it. I couldn't get it. I couldn't get it.
Speaker 3: Was amazing. And I said that in the interview, and
Speaker 3: then suddenly they pull out something to give and I
Speaker 3: was I was literally in tears. I was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know what to say. I screamed. I had a
Speaker 3: picture of my mouth open. It's so funny.
Speaker 1: So what are some of your favorite guitars that you have?
Speaker 1: I love guitars, just the shapes, the colors, the looks.
Speaker 1: I play a little bit, but mostly I just think
Speaker 1: they're beautiful objects. What are some of your favorite ones
Speaker 1: that you have stories behind them?
Speaker 3: Well? I usually like the classical ones. I just grab
Speaker 3: it and just play with it. It it's better. But
Speaker 3: nowadays I'm learning more of how to play guitar, even
Speaker 3: to start like comprovising stuff and other than just parkodes.
Speaker 3: And it's been really hectic so I need to like
Speaker 3: remove the nails. Yeah, so it's always whenever I have
Speaker 3: a show. When I was just like, I'm gonna put
Speaker 3: my nails on, and then I removed them for it,
Speaker 3: so I can never grow my nails ever. We're girls.
Speaker 2: Friend of man he had I don't know the term,
Speaker 2: like acrylic nails that he put on his fingers. They
Speaker 2: weren't his real nails, so they could do the finger.
Speaker 3: Picures you you need because if you're not using a pick,
Speaker 3: some people rely on their nails. But for me, no,
Speaker 3: I will play it with my fingers. I'm not that
Speaker 3: good though, but I better. Yeah, I sing better than
Speaker 3: the playing. But I'm learning.
Speaker 2: I'm learning.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: Performed an original song, yeah, I mean, can you tell
Speaker 2: me about how you chose to perform it?
Speaker 1: There?
Speaker 2: What the message was?
Speaker 3: So it was written by a Palestinian writer his name
Speaker 3: is Atam Dan and the one who produced the melody
Speaker 3: and the music was Peter his Albanese based in California.
Speaker 3: I think I worked with both of them and it's
Speaker 3: been amazing. When we did the song, originally it was
Speaker 3: for an athlete, Mattez Basham for the Olympics. What do
Speaker 3: you call it? The jumper, long jump, I think the
Speaker 3: long jump yet it was I think it's his last participation.
Speaker 3: So we created the song for him. And then when
Speaker 3: we were traveling to intervision, I was like, I want
Speaker 3: to perform it, but I want to add another because
Speaker 3: they we had like a time they wanted three minutes,
Speaker 3: so it's like, okay, let me add another section. Like
Speaker 3: at first and it was fantastic, it became much more
Speaker 3: about because it's called hua antet anti. It means this
Speaker 3: is you, and it speaks about how you achieved dreams
Speaker 3: and how hard to do that. And your road is
Speaker 3: not all like flowers and and and and and lala land,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, you work hard to reach
Speaker 3: what you want and you have a home. You are
Speaker 3: in every home it says bait and bait and bait,
Speaker 3: and so you are repeating the word home, home, home,
Speaker 3: and then alban Alban means heart, and that's what it says.
Speaker 3: And then and the other chorus you say hell, hell, hell,
Speaker 3: it means fly high. So it was it was something
Speaker 3: else and and what I loved about performing Athansrivision that
Speaker 3: I was with my I'm not going to call them students.
Speaker 3: I'm going to call them my talent that I usually
Speaker 3: have with me in music lab and they came all
Speaker 3: along with me. I had a thirteen year old and
Speaker 3: at intervision. They loved the diversity of nationalities that I
Speaker 3: had with me. So I had a Filipino, a Lebanese
Speaker 3: and then a Malaysian, a violinist that was the youngest,
Speaker 3: and then an Indian and a Sudani guy. And then
Speaker 3: the management. We had my Palestinian friends also with me.
Speaker 3: The management and the talent coordinator and the social media department.
Speaker 3: She was ato with us. It was something else. It
Speaker 3: was a beautiful experience.
Speaker 2: They're going to be friends the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2: These people from all over the world I met when
Speaker 2: they were kids at this event. That's unforgettable event, and
Speaker 2: that's beautiful, I know, bonding through art. You're talking about
Speaker 2: how that song's about working hard and flying high and achieving.
Speaker 2: When you first were getting involved with music, what did
Speaker 2: success look like to you.
Speaker 3: Well, my story is something else. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you know that I'm the first Ratari singer in Don't
Speaker 3: Have That was a challenge actually to come from a
Speaker 3: very conservative family that doesn't believe actually that this is
Speaker 3: something that you should do. It's a sin, it's something
Speaker 3: forbidden for a woman to do. And I've always felt
Speaker 3: like I have something to fight for and to say
Speaker 3: that and not necessary. If I'm a singer, it means
Speaker 3: I'm somebody who's doing something wrong or sing about something wrong,
Speaker 3: or what am I singing for? So when I started
Speaker 3: at the World Cup, I used to do things like
Speaker 3: a long time ago behind the scenes, but yeah, in general,
Speaker 3: it was something else. Doing the World Cup and coming
Speaker 3: out at the World Cup. It showed my talent and
Speaker 3: at the same time, I wasn't eighteen. I was like
Speaker 3: thirty five, thirty four. I was an adult. I know
Speaker 3: what am I doing. So it was a challenge. But
Speaker 3: at the same time I did not expect that much
Speaker 3: of support it from the community because I thought that
Speaker 3: they might have a problem with that. But at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, it was something else. Let's say
Speaker 3: the fight from the family. It's still there. They don't
Speaker 3: like it, but I feel like I'm fighting against the
Speaker 3: idea of I'm not gonna be corrupted, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: do anything wrong, And part of that made me feel
Speaker 3: like this is the successful part of it, to show
Speaker 3: that this is what I'm doing, and I'm not. My
Speaker 3: intention is not to be rich or famous for any
Speaker 3: of that. I'm doing it because I love it. I
Speaker 3: love standing a stage. I love singing, that's all. And
Speaker 3: it's like making people believe that you can do it
Speaker 3: with all those restrictions. With me wearing my abbai and
Speaker 3: my shila, I haven't changed even the way I wear
Speaker 3: my shaila on stage. And sometimes while I'm singing. I
Speaker 3: remember I had this performance in front of her Excellency
Speaker 3: Delani and I was singing. While I was singing, I
Speaker 3: was singing the same song and while I was singing
Speaker 3: my shad, I was going down, down down. I was like,
Speaker 3: I was like, I was slinging the guitar and I
Speaker 3: was like, I paused the song and I was like,
Speaker 3: just a second, let me fix my sheila. And I
Speaker 3: fixed it, and I said, that's when when when a
Speaker 3: singer and a guitarist is a hi jaby and I
Speaker 3: started laughing and I continued this song after with so
Speaker 3: I feel like, this is my identity, this is who
Speaker 3: I am, and that's what I'm that's what I want
Speaker 3: to do, even that's what I do with the talents
Speaker 3: and the students. That comes my way through music club.
Speaker 2: But it's your voice is such a primal thing, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the direct way to communicate. What would
Speaker 2: you say when you were having conversations with people who
Speaker 2: they simply put didn't want you to sing? I mean,
Speaker 2: what would would your response speed to them?
Speaker 3: Well, to be honest, I never asked for permission.
Speaker 2: I love that that's.
Speaker 3: One and I was scared by myself of what is
Speaker 3: the reaction is going to be? And then I was like,
Speaker 3: if I believe that I'm not wrong and I'm not
Speaker 3: doing anything wrong, then eventually people will see that. My
Speaker 3: parents will see that, my brothers will see that. I
Speaker 3: don't think they do. But they're quiet, but they don't
Speaker 3: like it. But they're quiet. They're not supporting. Like, for example,
Speaker 3: I finished the World Cup, came home, everybody asleep, nobody
Speaker 3: cheered me up. It was a huge achievement and nothing
Speaker 3: even inter vision, nothing. My mom went with me to
Speaker 3: Russia and she was extremely proud. So I have the
Speaker 3: support of my mom. But the rest of the small
Speaker 3: family the home, like dad, brothers, they're not very happy
Speaker 3: about it. But it's okay, it's fine. They have their
Speaker 3: own reasons. Of course, I understand as much as I
Speaker 3: want them to understand that I'm not there to make
Speaker 3: them feel shy of what I'm doing or disrespect them
Speaker 3: or any of that. I'm doing it because I really
Speaker 3: like to do it, and with a lot of restrictions,
Speaker 3: like I don't work with anybody, I don't sing for anybody.
Speaker 3: A lot of singers go to sing weddings and say,
Speaker 3: I don't do any of that. Pure the art that
Speaker 3: I choose myself with the people I choose myself, which
Speaker 3: I think that's unique and cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, you can cool anywhere. That's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's very rare.
Speaker 3: I think that's the thing. And I remember during the
Speaker 3: World Cup, the FIFA car used to come inside the house,
Speaker 3: pick me up and go. It was it was really scary,
Speaker 3: but it was fun. It was something else and I
Speaker 3: surprise everybody. I surprised everybody during the World Cup.
Speaker 2: This is a question that I did not write down.
Speaker 2: I hadn't thought of until just this moment talking to you,
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to figure out the best way to
Speaker 2: articulate it. And it's probably in the simplest way, but
Speaker 2: it's a big question. What does singing mean to you?
Speaker 2: Is that something that you're able to share? Because I
Speaker 2: am not a singer, but I am a creative person
Speaker 2: and I know that feeling that urged you have something
Speaker 2: in you that you want to get out of you.
Speaker 3: That's a very interesting question because I never thought of it,
Speaker 3: but I do remember that I used to. I always
Speaker 3: ask my students, why do you sing?
Speaker 2: Well, that's me ask you then, and how do.
Speaker 3: I feel when I sing? It's exactly similar to when
Speaker 3: we speak, when you see things, when you touch things.
Speaker 3: It's something that I naturally do. I don't know, it's
Speaker 3: not something that I'm training myself to do. It's just
Speaker 3: it came just like that. I just love singing. I
Speaker 3: think when I sing, I connect with people, I can
Speaker 3: deliver my emotions. I can be myself when I sing.
Speaker 3: It's part of who I am. You cannot meet anybody,
Speaker 3: even before me becoming famous, that I sing. Whenever they're like,
Speaker 3: oh you have a beautiful voice, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: thank you. So it's something that it's there. And I
Speaker 3: do believe if somebody was meant to sing, they'll never stop.
Speaker 3: It's different than people who comes and train themselves because
Speaker 3: they want to be able to sing when you are
Speaker 3: born with it. You're born with it. It's within, it's
Speaker 3: with your heartbeat. Your rhythm is with your heartbeat.
Speaker 2: You know that's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I want to talk more about the
Speaker 1: work you do with the Music Lab. Can you talk
Speaker 1: more about what that organization is and what they do
Speaker 1: and your role in it.
Speaker 3: So Music Lab. I never thought that it will happen
Speaker 3: this way ever in my life. It's something that I
Speaker 3: had in the back of my head, similar to actually
Speaker 3: singing the World Cup. They asked me, have you ever
Speaker 3: dreamed about any of this? So I was like no,
Speaker 3: But suddenly, while I was in an interview, I remembered
Speaker 3: a scene when I was ten year old watching Ricky
Speaker 3: Martin singing the World Cup and I was sitting with
Speaker 3: my cousin and I was listening to him. I was like,
Speaker 3: he's out of tune sometimes, and I was thinking this way,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I looked at her. I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be there one day and she was like, yeah, right.
Speaker 3: I swear she's four years older than me. And I
Speaker 3: remember I remember literally saying this, and I never had
Speaker 3: it in mind, and when it happened, it was like this,
Speaker 3: and then suddenly I remembered it while I was in
Speaker 3: an actually radio interview, and I was like, I can't
Speaker 3: believe it. Literally, I said this long time ago, so
Speaker 3: I kind of manifested music club. On the other hand,
Speaker 3: have always wanted to do an experience similar to a
Speaker 3: program that we used to watch on a libit on
Speaker 3: TV channel, Cold Star Academy, where they bring a bunch
Speaker 3: of talents, they trained them and then they put them
Speaker 3: on show and then they do I think stuff like
Speaker 3: the training, but for me, the training part was the
Speaker 3: most important thing. So I wanted to because I'm originally
Speaker 3: a filmmaker. I love film as much as I love music,
Speaker 3: but I stopped film for a while now. Since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 3: I had an idea of gathering underground singers from the
Speaker 3: age of twelve till thirty or thirty five musicians and singers,
Speaker 3: and I trained them for a three nights show for
Speaker 3: the film Festival. Don't have Film Institute a festival called
Speaker 3: the GIA now a change in to do have Film Festival,
Speaker 3: which is last year, and I wanted to train those
Speaker 3: kids to sing on stage, to find their own voices,
Speaker 3: sing different songs that they've never experienced before in all languages.
Speaker 3: So the first night was about films, like songs and
Speaker 3: scores from films, and then the second night will be
Speaker 3: about worldwide, so we sing in Hindi, in Japanese and
Speaker 3: Korean Arabic English, name the language, and then the third
Speaker 3: night would be Geek the Them, which is Geek Them
Speaker 3: is a community event and celebration the Qatari version of
Speaker 3: come a con Okay basically Geek Them. They had a
Speaker 3: karaokium and I used to go there and close the
Speaker 3: doors and tell them you're not allowed to record me
Speaker 3: otherwise people's live will be in danger. And they never
Speaker 3: filmed me. And I used to sing, and then I
Speaker 3: was like, you guys are oh aut of tune. I
Speaker 3: hate it. I want to have a show on stage
Speaker 3: that sings all those cartoon songs and video games beautifully.
Speaker 2: What songs did you sing? I have to ask.
Speaker 3: I used to I used to sing part of That
Speaker 3: World to Mermaid it's my favorite. And Once upon a
Speaker 3: December and a Stasia that's one of my favorite too,
Speaker 3: So I used to sing that all the time. And
Speaker 3: there's another ones because they're all songs that were dubbed
Speaker 3: into Arabic from Japanese cartoon. It's a huge community that
Speaker 3: people do every year for how many years now, imagine.
Speaker 3: So I took that concept and I created a Geekdom
Speaker 3: night that has all the cartoons played with the band,
Speaker 3: a rock band, imagine. I love it. And every time
Speaker 3: I do this training for three months, two and a
Speaker 3: half month to three teaching all those kids how to
Speaker 3: be on stage and how to sing and how to
Speaker 3: trust themselves. Their parents are extremely happy with the results.
Speaker 3: Some of them now graduated from universities and they're back
Speaker 3: to perform with me or work with me, which is
Speaker 3: hot warming to be honest.
Speaker 2: How does that feel for you? That must best watching
Speaker 2: tree grow that you.
Speaker 3: Can exactly and it's only eight years. It's not much,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not much. But if they were there
Speaker 3: when they were fifteen, now they're twenty one, and it's
Speaker 3: something else. It's beautiful. It's me giving them part of me.
Speaker 3: Because I haven't studied music. I'm teaching them what I've
Speaker 3: learned through all these years. How I trained my voice,
Speaker 3: which they trust me because they see me on tune.
Speaker 3: They see that when I perform, I deliver, and that's
Speaker 3: what I give them. And I love it. I enjoy it.
Speaker 2: How did you train yourself self taught?
Speaker 1: In?
Speaker 3: What ways did you do as a singer. My instrument
Speaker 3: is also my ear, so I train myself to listen
Speaker 3: and part of what I do. I used to study
Speaker 3: Japanese when I was eighteen till let's say twenty seven.
Speaker 2: So many talents and Japanese translation.
Speaker 3: I haven't spoke Japanese for a while, but I never
Speaker 3: forgot what my teacher used to tell me my sons.
Speaker 3: He used to say, Japanese people will never understand the
Speaker 3: way you speak, so you need to pronounce the words
Speaker 3: exactly the same way they pronounce it. So for example,
Speaker 3: I cannot say computer. They won't to understand. You need
Speaker 3: to see computer. And I'm like okay. So part of
Speaker 3: our lesson we would have a three hours or four
Speaker 3: hours class as it's a school day. One hour we
Speaker 3: would have a day of listening to conversations in Japanese
Speaker 3: and we have to copy it. And it was called
Speaker 3: shadow wingo, so we shadow what we hear. So I
Speaker 3: use this technique to teach them how to sing.
Speaker 2: Fascinating.
Speaker 3: So if we are learning something in Japanese or learning
Speaker 3: something in Hindi or in Arabic for Indian people or
Speaker 3: non Arabic speakers. That's what we do shadow ingo.
Speaker 2: That's so funny. You mentioned that I had a teacher once.
Speaker 2: I was a music teacher, and he used to love
Speaker 2: to record conversations and he leaves fast by the musicality
Speaker 2: in people's voices, the rising and fall back, and then
Speaker 2: he would try to transpose it to different ins usually
Speaker 2: string instruments because you could get in between you. Yes,
Speaker 2: it was a fascinating man and I was always so
Speaker 2: interested to hear him talk about that. But that's so
Speaker 2: interesting to hear that. That's the approach you used too.
Speaker 3: Wow, that would be It would be funny if you
Speaker 3: see how we train them. I put the speaker in
Speaker 3: the middle and they form a circle and they walk,
Speaker 3: and then they have to match the rhythm. They have
Speaker 3: to match even the breath when they sing. To match,
Speaker 3: I always tell them to copy but not paste. So copy,
Speaker 3: but don't paste it because I want your voice now,
Speaker 3: So don't copy the singer. I don't want to hear
Speaker 3: another Tailor Swift. That's Taylor Swift. I love her as
Speaker 3: she is. I don't want another version of her. I
Speaker 3: want you as yourself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: That's very funny you mentioned this. When I was younger,
Speaker 2: I was afraid to sing, but I wanted to be
Speaker 2: in that. We did plays and shows and theatrical productions
Speaker 2: in my school, and I wanted to be a part
Speaker 2: of it. I was afraid to sing, and so to
Speaker 2: try to get through that, I said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: learn how to imitate a singer. I'm not really gonna sing,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do what a singer does. Whatever I thought
Speaker 2: that was, and so I to this day. I love
Speaker 2: music with all my heart. It's my biggest passion in life.
Speaker 2: I don't make it myself, but I can imitate a singer.
Speaker 2: What would you say? I mean, I mean, I imagine
Speaker 2: it's what you would tell your students. What would you
Speaker 2: say to someone like me who has a hard time
Speaker 2: actually accessing their own being themselves singing?
Speaker 3: I used to tell people like I don't know if
Speaker 3: this is right when it comes to proper voice training,
Speaker 3: but I hear me when I speak, and if I'm
Speaker 3: speaking like this, still I'm still singing and I can talk.
Speaker 3: It's the same voice, and if I want to change it,
Speaker 3: I can, you know, what I mean. I can still
Speaker 3: sing and I speak with the same tone, with the
Speaker 3: same exture of voice. You know what I mean? Do
Speaker 3: you get me?
Speaker 2: But I feel like that's rare, though maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's a unique given.
Speaker 3: There are some people who sounds. There was this this singer.
Speaker 3: She was I think of the American idol if I'm
Speaker 3: not sure, And she had a very squeezy voice, and
Speaker 3: then suddenly when she sings, her voice becomes normal. That's interesting,
Speaker 3: which I was questioning, what is that. That's yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 3: I speak like that, but when I swing like this,
Speaker 3: it's weird. It was like, can I have her for
Speaker 3: a minute. I just want to Probably it's just like
Speaker 3: just an experiment I want to see. But if you're
Speaker 3: going to buy a guitar, both are acoustic, this one
Speaker 3: is Yamaha and this one is Yamaha, Okay, both of them.
Speaker 3: Both guitars are the same. They don't sound the same
Speaker 3: because the body is different. So your body is different
Speaker 3: than my, Your body is different than a charin, So
Speaker 3: his voice is going to be his and your voice
Speaker 3: is going to be yours. Some people sometimes look like
Speaker 3: each other. God creates people that looks like We say
Speaker 3: that God creates forty people that looks alike in the world.
Speaker 4: It's something that we say here, it's something that they
Speaker 4: say that creates forty people that has the same like
Speaker 4: they're a bit similar.
Speaker 3: To You can see people you're like, huh, he looks
Speaker 3: like tailors to it, she looks like talors, and they
Speaker 3: do the comparison usually social media that people look alike,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. But voices can be also
Speaker 3: like similar. But you would definitely say there's something there's
Speaker 3: a characteristic What is the cool thing about having the
Speaker 3: same person's voice or look and which people now at
Speaker 3: the moment are copying. I want to look like that,
Speaker 3: and I want to look like her, and I want
Speaker 3: to look like him, which is weird. Then you're not unique. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you need to be yourself. And I keep telling the
Speaker 3: student to be yourself and show who you are because
Speaker 3: you will have something that nobody else has. But you
Speaker 3: need to find it within you and you need to
Speaker 3: work hard for it, otherwise it's wasted time. You know.
Speaker 2: It's an expression in the United States, be yourself.
Speaker 3: Everybody else is taken exactly well, yeah, taken, somebody.
Speaker 2: Else is filled. Those positions are all filled. Be yourself.
Speaker 2: I agree, well, I don't want to take up too
Speaker 2: much more of your time. But my last question for
Speaker 2: people who I love music with all my heart and
Speaker 2: I'm always fascinated to learn more about music and discover
Speaker 2: new music. For people who are just discovering music of
Speaker 2: this region, do you have any recommendations of either artists
Speaker 2: or types of music to check out, or specific songs.
Speaker 2: Any direction would be greatly appreciated.
Speaker 3: Nowadays, I do believe that there are no much identity
Speaker 3: and music. Everybody is similar to somebody else. So the
Speaker 3: Arabs would sound like Indians, Indians would sound like Americans,
Speaker 3: Americans would sound like Asian Koreans. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like it's a mix of everything because everybody is
Speaker 3: now closer to each other because of Internet and traveling
Speaker 3: and all that.
Speaker 2: It's a global society exactly.
Speaker 3: But what I would suggest listen to songs that they
Speaker 3: were created back in the days from the nineties, eighties, seventies, sixties.
Speaker 2: That's my anyway, that's your.
Speaker 3: Era, that's the air that we like to listen to music.
Speaker 3: For me, that's the time where music was actually genuine
Speaker 3: and true and nice. And maybe it's because it's familiar
Speaker 3: to us. Maybe it's because we've listened to it a lot.
Speaker 2: There's something more though, there's something personal about it.
Speaker 3: There's even even movies, by the way, Yeah, if you
Speaker 3: think about it. Yeah, nineties movies were like.
Speaker 2: What are your nineties movies?
Speaker 3: I would love to know my favorite nineties hongcoms?
Speaker 2: Of course, tell me. I want to hear them all.
Speaker 3: Sleepless in Seattle, What was the name of the movie? Wait,
Speaker 3: when Harry met Sally?
Speaker 2: One of my one of my favorite writers, You've got mail.
Speaker 3: I love the Mighty Ducks. I love the Mighty Ducks.
Speaker 3: I love her at a kid. I do like also,
Speaker 3: for example, the Notebook. I like few things, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: I like some. There's a lot of movies that that
Speaker 3: doesn't come now to my girl, so sad, I know,
Speaker 3: but it's it's so good. It was it was, it
Speaker 3: was done really well. It was, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Nowadays movies are in Arabic, we would say they're empty.
Speaker 3: How yeah, and Arabic it's empty, it doesn't have feelings.
Speaker 3: It's I used to tell them there are some because
Speaker 3: I'm a director, and they used to tell me, well,
Speaker 3: who's your favorite director? And I'm like, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: say Steve Stilberg. I don't know. Maybe maybe yes, maybe no.
Speaker 3: But for me, if a movie delivers an emotion, that's it.
Speaker 3: I got it. I got the I got the idea.
Speaker 3: I'm not somebody who I'm not a filmmaker who would
Speaker 3: look at movies that want and Oscar or yeah, that's
Speaker 3: I don't care. I don't care about that. I care
Speaker 3: about a movie that there is a story that means something,
Speaker 3: or it gave me an information that I've never had
Speaker 3: and it matches reality more, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: When it's the conversations are true, it's not like they're
Speaker 3: acting on it. They're acting that they're acting. No, I
Speaker 3: don't want that. I want something that's natural, touching more.
Speaker 3: The music also in it would be different songs in
Speaker 3: that era was better. So if you go and listen
Speaker 3: to abdil Majid, if you go and Listenah, he's a
Speaker 3: Saundi singer, Rassia del madd he's also a Soundi singer.
Speaker 3: If you listen to a Helam, she's an Emarati singer.
Speaker 3: If you listen to Onkelfum she's an Egyptian singer, one
Speaker 3: of the biggest singers in the history. He's a Kuwaiti singer.
Speaker 3: Those people had a touch in people's hearts. And there
Speaker 3: are some people that I don't listen to, but I
Speaker 3: know that they're amazing. In the region, a guy called
Speaker 3: the Ali Bahar and he had a band and they
Speaker 3: were different because there they used to use Western instruments
Speaker 3: and their music, wow, it was amazing. Their name is
Speaker 3: so the band called which is the Brothers. There's Miami,
Speaker 3: also a band called Miami. They're Kuwaitishini singers. There's also
Speaker 3: a Yemeni singer called Ahmed Veti. His daughter also a singer.
Speaker 3: Now she's my age or no, actually four years older.
Speaker 3: Her name is Belgris. Also these people, you would hear
Speaker 3: the history from Ahmed vet and then you hear his
Speaker 3: daughter singing very modern and beautiful songs. And that's there
Speaker 3: that you would enjoy. I think, and listen to something
Speaker 3: different than what you hear back home and New York.
Speaker 2: Oh, I can't wait to go, got some homework to do.
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
Speaker 3: Yes, and listen to my songs to o court.
Speaker 2: Yes, naturally, because they're different.
Speaker 1: Dona Thank you so much for your time today, your
Speaker 1: sharing your story and your music.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much much. I've never had a conversation
Speaker 3: that that open and very very relaxed. I'm definitely one
Speaker 3: to telling you the truth. But thank you, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you. It's been such an honor.
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Speaker 3: It was b