It is a journey of astonishment, led by the Lebanese artist Layal Nehme. She carried us with her voice to the highest peak on the mountain of creativity, delighted our ears with her beautiful voice and wonderful performance, and touched our hearts with her high feeling.
At the invitation of the Cultural Committee of the Syriac Association in Lebanon, the artist Layal Nehme performed a Lebanese-Syriac singing evening entitled “Colorful Dreams,” which is the title of Layal’s album that she released three years ago, but due to the spread of the Corona virus at the time, the Beirut port explosion, and the various difficult situations, she did not sign. Layal released this album, so she signed it after her concert, which was held at the Pierre Abu Khater Theater at Saint Joseph University, Damascus Road.
For more than an hour and a half, Layal Nehme shone with her presence and excelled in singing, soaring with her voice in many of the world’s languages. We enjoyed her singing in the Lebanese dialect, in classical Arabic, and in Syriac, French, Armenian, and Hindi.
The ceremony was presented by media personality Rula Abu Zeid, with a high degree of professionalism, as usual, and the head of the Syriac Association in Lebanon, Habib Afram, gave a speech in which he said: “Some may consider that we have finished with the massacres of uprooting terrorism, but music may revive what died in us. After despair, oppression and corruption. The thefts, the Beirut bombing, and the collapse of the concept of the state, law, and human rights. We resist with art, language, melody, and joy, because we still deserve to live.” He added: “We will support everyone who preaches our heritage, our history, so what about the Maronite nights that return to their roots in an album in the sacred Syriac language, the language is the mirror of the nation.”
Then the artist Layal Nehme appeared, accompanied by the musical band, Charbel Mansour’s piano, Elie Nehme’s oud, Haitham Rafael’s violin, and Ibrahim Deeb’s darbeka, and she excelled in singing her own songs, and a song for major artists, Wadih Al-Safi, Fairouz, Warda, Zaki Nassif, Salwa Al-Qatrib, and Marwan. Mahfouz, Magda Al-Roumi and Enrico Macias. Layal sang the songs “My Homeland”, “Iyam”, “Time Stole Me”, “Take Me My Love”, “Li Beirut”, “Talloa Our Love”, “Nasm Al-Hawa”, “J’ai Quitté Mon Pays”. , “What’s behind the sea”, “Talaat, O Mahala, her light”, “The Shalabi girl”, “I am Aramaic”, “Tomorrow will come to us”, “The time was”, “We had a mill”, “Teach me”, an Indian song, an Armenian song A medley from the songs from the album “Colourful Dreams”, “We Are Coming Back Ya Hawa”, which Layal sang duet with her brother Elie, who also played the oud, “Naqili Ahla Zahra” and “On Your Name I Ghannit”.
The Association honored the director of Al-Sumaria Channel, Shafiq Tabet, in appreciation for his support of the Syriac culture and his contributions in the humanitarian field. Bishop Michael Chamoun presented him with the honorary shield. The Association also honored the artist Layal Nehme in appreciation for her revival of the Syriac heritage through song, word, and melody. The honorary shield was presented to her by the President of the Jesuit University, Father Salim Dakkash.
The “Al Fan” website, which was present at this singing evening, met the artist, Layal Nehme, and we had this dialogue with her.
Why did you decide to sing in the Syriac language?
The story began with the song “I Am Aramaic,” written and composed by Milad Abdel, who lives in Sweden, which I released in 2015. Abdel asked me at the time if I would like to sing a Syriac song. I did not hesitate to sing it, and I discovered how beautiful and musically saturated Syriac is. Today, there are 8 songs in the colloquial Syriac language, not in classical Syriac, within the album “Colorful Dreams”. They are in various musical styles and many themes, including about the father, belonging to the land, and love. There are two songs in the album that mix the Lebanese dialect and the Syriac language. On the album, I collaborated with many poets, composers, and music arrangers, who are spread across more than one country. Among the writers there is Joseph Ghouria, and among the composers is Nabil Youssef.
How will those who are not fluent in the Syriac language understand what you sing in “Colorful Dreams”?
Music connoisseurs all over the world listen to many styles of music, but they do not know the language in which it is sung, or what happens if the language is popular, and we use many of its vocabulary in our Lebanese dialect.
You are an artist and singer, and you have written and composed songs and hymns. What is more difficult to sing or chant?
Each of them has its own situation. The last hymn I wrote was “Your Wounds, My Son” for Holy Week last year. I did not expect to write this. It should be in the atmosphere of the religious topic, and in a certain spiritual state.
The song “We Will Meet Again,” whose lyrics were written and composed by your brother, the artist George Nehme, and which you sang with George and your brothers, male and female artists, Abeer, Manal, Eli, Ghada, Nisreen, and Ziad, achieved great success because you came together in it, and gave us hope of meeting again in the time of home quarantine in 2020. Will we be anticipating an artistic work? What brings together all the members of the Naama family?
People loved this song because it gives hope, joy, and is easy to hear. My dream and my brothers’ dream is to present new songs together. We will not wait for certain circumstances to come together again. We will create the event and meet again with an artistic work because this is necessary.
Your sister, the artist Abeer Nehme, was present at this artistic evening. To what extent does she support you?
Abeer supports me a lot, and all my brothers and sisters and I support each other to the utmost.
I did not see your brother, the artist George Nehme, in the audience.
George is currently in the United States of America, where he is on a singing tour, and as for my brothers and sisters who did not attend today’s evening, the reason is that they are outside Lebanon, including Manal and Nisreen, and among those present today are Abeer, Elie, and Ziad.
In addition to your musical studies, you have a master’s degree in development, and in-depth studies in socio-political science. You sang “Tomorrow is ours” from your tunes, but is it really “tomorrow is ours”?
I have a special song called “Homeland,” which is one of my words. It does not contain hope, but rather reality. Sometimes we must describe reality as it is, but we cannot not give hope, because without hope we die, and this is our condition at this stage. There is a plan. We are programmed to lose hope and migrate silently or die where we are. For many years, and throughout our history, we have gone through very difficult circumstances, but we have not lost hope, and the danger now is that the war is more psychological than economic, making us lose hope. I do not hide from you that I sometimes feel weak or broken. No one expected what happened to us to happen, which did not happen in any other country in the world, but we rise from under the rubble, and we must bear our responsibility, and not just say that someone else made a mistake. The people also make mistakes every time. Sometimes there is a division (we want one thing, we do another thing, and we talk about another thing as well), so there must be a change in political thought, and this is the most difficult.
We congratulate your sister Nisreen, who recently entered the golden cage, and is preparing new songs with your lyrics. What do you write for her?
I wrote very beautiful words for her. I hope that the listeners will like them. I wrote topics for her that give hope and motivation. They are about life and the will to change, with modern and loud music. She brings sublime topics in a very new form.
To what extent does marriage affect the artist’s life?
I always say that the most beautiful characteristic of me is that I am a mother of five children: Youssef, Clara, Christina, Maria, and Tony. I got married at a young age, and then I completed my major at university and worked in media and management. Marriage is not an obstacle to the continuity of the artist.
In conclusion, what are you preparing again?
I have several new songs that I have prepared, including the song “That’s It, I’m Comfortable.” I hope to find the appropriate way to release it, as the subject of production is essential, and the artist alone cannot do everything. I also have a singing tour in Europe and Jordan, in addition to singing evenings in Lebanon. Thank you, Joseph, and I thank media editor-in-chief Hala Murr. The “Al Fan” website is always bright, and your presence is dear to my heart.
We also met our colleague Rula Abu Zeid, who we asked about how she was chosen to present this evening. She said: “I was contacted by the Syriac Association in Lebanon, and I am happy to participate in this great artistic event, because we always like to emphasize that Beirut is the capital of art, music and culture.” We always have our word, and our voice that resonates. We tell the world with our music and our beautiful voices. This is an evening of joy, giving hope and optimism to the audience and to all the Lebanese, that our country is a country of goodness, and despite all the circumstances that afflict us, we will still have a large space through which we can rise up, and in the end we are Phoenix”.
As for the artist Layal Nehme, Rula said: “Layal holds a master’s degree and a diploma, and has worked in human resources and in the media in Lebanon and abroad. If I want to mention all the certificates that Layal obtained, perhaps the time for the evening will end, and I will not have finished mentioning her certificates unless Layal could not stay away from music, as it runs in her blood, in addition to her great support, which is her family and family.”
