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Harpers Bazaar Arabia

Zeyne On Her New Single And Trailblazing To The Top

Singer-songwriter Zeyne has reached icon status without even releasing an album. The song bird talks heritage, fashion and her new single with Bazaar Arabia… You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't instantly warm to Zeyne. She's friendly, articulate and enthusiastic in equal measures. Oh, and she loves to talk. All of these traits manifest when I ask the Palestinian-Jordanian singer my first question; 'Tell me about your new single,' and she chatters for exactly four minutes without stopping, barely taking a breath. She's excited, and she's proud, and so she should be, it's another hit in every sense. Hilwa—beautiful in Arabic—follows the huge success of her viral single Asli Ana, and similarly pays tribute to her culture and talks of self empowerment, all to the backdrop of an infectious beat rooted in regional sounds. 'It talks about loving who you are, but also honouring the love that was passed down through your roots, from your mother and your grandmother,' explains the artist who was born and raised in Amman. 'The Hilwa Hilwa is what my mum will say to me when I ask her how I look in something, and she's telling me; 'You're so beautiful' – it comes with a real feminine energy.' Zeyne, 27, goes on to add that the song is the quickest one she's ever penned, taking just a few hours from receiving an unsolicited track from an Algerian producer on Instagram. 'I'd never heard of him, he just sent me this track with guitars – with a North African feel but mixed with our Palestinian culture and heritage – I think it wasone in the morning.' Zeyne started writing lyrics in the early hours. 'I showed it to my own producer the next day, and he loved it, we built on the production together, and we finished writing it, and it was like; boom, done.' A week later, the singer was performing it at her brother's wedding. 'People were just dancing and singing along, although it was their first time listening to it. I got some very positive feedback,' beams Zeyne, who credits legendary Lebanese vocalist Fairuz as one of her biggest inspirations. 'It's a fun, feel good song, but it also has meaning – that's something I won't compromise on, I never write anything that doesn't have meaning, or isn't based on personal experience. And it's this fearlessness to share so much of herself that has seen Zeyne's star slowly rise over the last few years, then take a meteoric projection over the last six months, with the release of Asli Ana, and it's much celebrated music video, a beautiful visual tribute to Palestinian culture. But things could have been very different for Zeyne, who had planned a career in public relations, landing a promising job in London after studying Media Communications and Sociology at Sussex University in Brighton. But Covid-19 lockdowns hit while she was back in Amman renewing travel documents, the PR role in the UK would have to be put on hold. Instead, the singer, who took both piano and vocal lessons as a child, passed the time by recording cover versions of popular English R&B songs and posting them on Instagram. 'In the beginning, I was singing only in English because I couldn't trust my voice in Arabic for some reason,' admits the singer. 'Even though I grew up listening to Arabic music, and to my mum and grandmother singing Palestinian folk songs, I was even in a Dabke folklore dance group from the age of five, so it wasn't new to my ear. I was trained classically in English.' But frequent requests for Arabic songs from her then 350 Instagram followers (that number is now well over 500,000), meant that she gave her mother tongue a go. 'I started doing more and more covers in Arabic in my Jordanian-Palestinian accent and people loved that because at the time, there weren't many female music artists doing that.' The Instagram account grew in popularity, she started connecting with those in the Jordanian music industry, and eventually landed herself a record deal and began making original music. The songs struck a chord because she's an artist that wears her heart on her sleeve, whether she's singing about love or heritage. Her second single Nostalgia, explored the trauma that comes with being a third generation Palestinian who has never truly experienced their homeland. With that, she firmly declared herself an artist who would not shy away from speaking up for her people, Asli Ana doubled down on that. 'I always just strive to be myself fully in my music, and when I think about Palestine, there's a sense of responsibility to sing about my culture, or the Palestinian cause in a way that's authentic.' And this originality has gained her a global fanbase. 'They might be Arabs in the diaspora, but when I look at my Spotify stats, my listeners are in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe – they're all in my top 10, my own hometown is like, number 22,' she laughs. 'I guess I write about things that are universal experiences.' She acknowledges that this could specifically be the case for her female audience. 'I am a woman in my twenties and I live in Jordan, but some of my experiences are the same globally, we all go through the same thing, more or less, it's just different fonts! The details are different, but its the same feeling. Zeyne's music hasn't gone unnoticed by global brands either. She's collaborated with Dior and Valentino. She's a regular at fashion weeks, having attended both Jacquemus and Loewe shows a week before we talk, and also having performed at the Bottega Veneta WAVES event in Dubai. 'I guess I really fell into fashion when I started making music because I started to explore my visual identity, and how I wanted to present myself to the world,' she shares. 'I've learned to really appreciate fashion, I've seen how much work goes into creating garments, from ideation to production, and its just as intricate as producing any other art. I like wearing both international and regional brands, I really like Nafsika Skourti, a Palestinian duo that create beautiful designs, I was so honoured to work with them for my first video, and many times since.' With her viral success, it's hard to believe that it's still early days career wise for Zeyne, with her much awaited album out later this year, and of course, single Hilwa, and it's accompanying video, out later this month. 'The visuals of that song are going to be very beautiful,' she teases, knowing the details are still a bit of a secret. 'So, I'm really excited for this release in particular!' She genuinely is passionate about each one of her projects; her hard work and authenticity make that possible, and long may it stay that way.