Meeting with Mayssa Jallad, researcher and musician, who is performing at Trans Musicales this Friday, December 6, 2024.
You live in Lebanon, how are you?
When I left Lebanon at the beginning of the week, there was already a ceasefire. We immediately felt something very strange. We realized that we were no longer in danger. But we remain worried. It’s also a lot of conflicted emotions, between gratitude and uncertainty.
Have you chosen to stay in Lebanon?
I spent more than three years in New York, including two years in college. But an existential crisis pushed me to return to Beirut to make Music. A certainty that I had something to do in the city I love.
How did music happen?
We listened to a lot of music at home. I first played the piano, then the guitar at 15. That’s where I started writing and composing.
-What do you mention in your album, Marjaa : The battle of the hôtels ?
I composed four ballads in an intimidating city, full of empty skyscrapers, because it’s too expensive, many homes have been destroyed. The past and the present have intertwined. Then I decided to compose and write around the Battle of the Hotels, a conflict that began in 1975, six months after the start of the civil war. Everyone heard about it, but it remained a mystery.
Was this your thesis subject in urban planning?
People instinctively want to forget the past. Music brings us closer. It is a way of preserving history, that it becomes our heritage, unites us. Because with the war, no one won, we all lost.
Friday December 6, 2024, at 7 p.m., at Ubu, free entry, www.lestrans.com
