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Tania Saleh (Arabic: تانيا صالح; born March 11, 1969) is a Lebanese singer-songwriter[1] who has been prominent in the Arabic independent musical scene since 1990.

Tania Saleh
تانيا صالح
Born (1969-03-11) March 11, 1969 (age 53)
Beirut, Lebanon
Genres
  • World
  • Contemporary Alternative Mediterranean Arabic
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter-visual artist
Years active1990–present
LabelsTantune
WebsiteOfficial website

Early life


Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer/songwriter/visual artist who is considered as one of the founders of the Arabic independent alternative musical scene in Lebanon[citation needed] and the Arab world. Her voice is a soft mix between the traditional Arabic music she was raised on and the western sounds she chose to follow. Her lyrics mirror the reality of the Lebanese/Arab social and political turmoil. Since her early debut in 1990, she has experimented with various musical genres, which has resulted in a fresh and original mix of Lebanese music flavored with folk, alternative rock, bossa nova, jazz and most recently electronic music.

She survived the Lebanese civil war that started when she was 6. Alex Bessos, founder of the band Minus Infinitee, in search of a lead vocalist expressed his interest in her voice and invited her to audition for the job of lead singer. Her first live performance was at the West Hall at the American University of Beirut in 1986. The Minus Infinitee experience did not last long because the founder emigrated to the United States.


Childhood


Her childhood and teenage years were affected tremendously by her parent's divorce, the civil war and that her mother was raising her two daughters alone. She had to start working at an early age to help support the family. At 17, she sang in various choirs, wrote jingles for radio commercials and worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.


Education


Saleh enrolled in The Lebanese American University to study Fine Arts but music was always her first love. While in college, she joined many rock bands in search for her own style. Sometimes she had to cross the border between East and West Beirut to do her rehearsals with the musicians.

In 1990, after the civil war ended, she left to Paris to get her master's degree in "Arts Plastiques". She lived in a boat on the Seine river and fell in love with the beauty of the city.


Television and advertising


Between 1992 and 2014, she applied her passion for the arts in the world of television where, for two years, she experimented with image and sound, created illustrations, animations, video art and wrote music jingles for Future Television. Later, she drowned in the world of advertising which was a new creative school that opened a new horizon on audio-visual and conceptual experimentation.


Collaboration with Ziad Rahbany


She auditioned for an upcoming play by Ziad Rahbany, a famous Lebanese music composer/lyricist/pianist and playwright. She acted and sang live in two consecutive plays, "Bikhsous el Karameh Wil Shaab el Anid" and "Lawla Foushat el Amal" between 1993 and 1996, and contributed backing vocals recording on two cult albums (to which she also designed the album covers for), "Bema Enno" (with the late singer Joseph Sakr) and "Ila Assy" (a tribute to Assy Rahbany by Fairouz).


Career



First & Second album


In 1997, Tania started to work on her solo album "Tania Saleh" (co-produced by sound engineer/music producer Philippe Tohmé) in collaboration with music veteran Issam Hajali ("Al Ard" band). She recorded her first album songs at Notta Studio with Philippe Tohmé. Ziad Rahbany played piano on two of her tracks, her first single, "Al Ozone" (appeared as an exclusive music video on Future Television Lebanon in 1997) and "Habibi" (written by Issam Hajali, appeared on her first album "Tania Saleh" released in 2002). The album was not considered a mainstream success but Saleh started an independent musical movement especially with the growth of the internet community in the Arab world. On April 13, 2011, she released her second studio album "Wehde" (co-produced by Philippe Tohmé). The album immediately became number 1 on the TOP 10 list of best selling albums at Virgin Megastore, Beirut and accompanied the winds of change throughout the Arab World.


Early Collaborations


In 2006, she wrote the lyrics to Natacha Atlas' song "Communicate" released on Lebanese band Blend's one and only album "Act One". In 2010, she was featured on Al Jazeera Television in "Next Music Station", a documentary by musician /filmmaker Fermin Muguruza who painted a 'soundscape' of the modern independent Arab music scene. The film was screened in Studio 39, New York the next year. Her first trip to the U.S.A. was hosted by music producer Miles Copeland who chose her as one of the main Arab artists portrayed in the PBS-produced musical documentary entitled: "Dissonance and Harmony/Arab Music Goes West". The documentary was preceded by a five-day musical workshop uniting American and Arab artists at SIR studios in Los Angeles. It was directed by Jon Brandeis and aired on PBS, BBC, Al Jazeera and Al Hurra. The result of this workshop/documentary was the songs: "Slow Down" (released as a single and on the compilation "Desert Roses5") and the song "Had There Been a Dream" (released on the compilation "Bagdad Heavy Metal") both produced by Miles Copeland between 2006 and 2009. Copeland mentioned his collaboration with Saleh in his autobiographical book "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back" released in 2021.


Collaboration with Nadine Labaki


In 2007, she wrote the lyrics to "Mreyte Ya Mreyte", the title song in Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's first feature film "Caramel", composed by Khaled Mouzannar. She wrote the lyrics and coached the singers in Khaled Mouzannar's soundtrack for Nadine Labaki's second feature film "Where Do We Go Now?" released worldwide in September 2011. The film soundtrack was distributed worldwide. It won "Best Music Award" in Stockholm International Film Festival in November 2011.


Live albums


In 2012, she released her first live album containing songs from Khaled Mouzannar's film soundtracks that she had written the lyrics for and three previously unreleased songs. The album was entitled "Tania Saleh Live at DRM" and released in December of the same year. Her second live album EP "Tania Saleh Live in Barcelona" was released in 2020.


Lebanese Festivals


She opened the Byblos International Festival in 2002, the Beirut Spring Festival in May 2013 and was chosen by The Baalbeck International Festival to perform at the temple of Bacchus in 2014. She also shared the stage as a guest with Lebanese trumpet player and composer Ibrahim Maalouf at the Byblos International Festival the same year.


Independence


Although she is still working independently without a proper manager or booking agency, but she has performed live at UNESCO (Paris), Dubai Expo 2020, (UAE), Cairo Opera House (Egypt), the Barbican Centre (UK), Institut du Monde Arabe (France), The Nobel Peace Centre, Freezone Festival, Woman's Voices Festival and Oslo World Festival (Norway), The Roxy & Arlington Festival (USA), Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and Stallet (Sweden) and many others.

Her musical collaborations are very eclectic: Ziad Rahbany, Toufic Farroukh, Issam Hajali, Charbel Rouhana, Ibrahim Maalouf, Rayess Bek, Khaled Mouzannar, RZA, Nile Rodgers, Charlotte Caffey, Tarek El Nasser, Natasha Atlas, Bernd Kurtzke, Erik Hillestad, Anneli Drecker, Mathias Eick, Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Terry Evans, Hazem Shahine, Lisa Nordström, Bugge Wesseltoft, Kari Bremnes, Øyvind Kristiansen, Lina Nyberg & Chinese Man Records. She has also collaborated in musical workshops and residencies in Lebanon, France, USA, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Dubai, Switzerland, Kuwait, and Egypt.[citation needed]

Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad from the label Kirkelig Kulturverksted has co-produced her last three albums, "A Few Images/Algumas Imagens" (2014), "Intersection" (2017) & "10 A.D." (2021).


Personal life


She married music producer/sound engineer Philippe Tohmé and gave birth to Tarek in 1997 and Karim in 2003 who took her away from live performances for more than seven years. In the meantime, she started writing her second album "Wehde", while still working in the advertising world to make a living and help produce her music. Her marriage to Tohmé was terminated in 2011, right in the middle of the release of her second album. Her latest album "10 A.D." (written entirely by Saleh) is a journey into a woman's life ten years after divorce.


Discography



Studio albums



Live albums



Singles



Compilation albums



Collaborations



References


  1. "The poetic licence of Arab indie scene leader Tania Saleh". The National. 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2021-06-08.




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