Yasmine Hamdan: NPR Music Front Row

Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan is an eminently cool addition to the indie-pop landscape. She was the co-founder of the groundbreaking duo Soapkills, which might have been the very first electronic band in postwar Beirut. Now a solo artist and based in Europe after a childhood split between Lebanon, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Greece, Hamdan blends new material with reworked traditional songs in a smoky-cool electro-pop setting.

Her choice to sing exclusively in Arabic isn't a parochial one: Instead, it's a statement that's both intensely personal and in some ways political, a way of declaring who she is and where she comes from. (She says she's turned down many international recording offers that stipulated she perform in English.) In her sets, she indulges in some regional code-switching, moving deftly between Arabic dialects. But whether or not you hear those differences in her singing, you'll instantly understand why she's attracted the attention of tastemakers from French Vogue magazine to filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who enlisted her to appear as herself in his upcoming film Only Lovers Left Alive. -- ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS

Set List
"Deny"
"IRSS"
"Galbi"
"Medxa"
"Suleina"
"Beirut"
"Ya Nass"
"Azza"

Credits
Producers: Mito Habe-Evans, Anastasia Tsioulcas; Videographers: Olivia Merrion, A.J. Wilhelm; Editor: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Event Coordinator: Saidah Blount; Special Thanks: globalFEST, Webster Hall; Executive Producers: Anya Grundmann.