Tania Saleh

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

Tania Saleh
تانيا صالح
Born (1969-03-11) March 11, 1969
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 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. Saleh began her musical journey in her late teens when 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 parents' divorce, the civil war and the fact that her single 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, "Bema Enno" (with the late singer Joseph Sakr) and "Ila Assy" (a tribute to Assy Rahbany by Fairouz).

Career

First album

In 1997, Tania started to work on her solo album "Tania Saleh" (co-produced by Philippe Tohme) in collaboration with music veteran Issam Hajali ("Al Ard" band). She recorded her first songs at Notta Studio with sound engineer Philippe Tohme. Ziad Rahbany played piano on two of her tracks, her first single, "Al Ozone" (appeared as an exclusive music video on Future Television Lebanon) 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.

Collaborations

In 2006, she wrote the lyrics to Natacha Atlas' song "Communicate" released on Lebanese band Blend's one and only album "Act One". 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.

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. 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.

Second album

In April 2011, she released her second studio album (co-produced by Philippe Tohme) and 2 music videos, "Wehde" and "Ya Wled", a critical ode to Lebanese politicians prior to the parliamentary elections. 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.

Second Collaboration with Nadine Labaki

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 also made it to number 1 on the TOP 10 list of best selling albums at Virgin Megastore, Beirut and was distributed worldwide. It won "Best Music Award" in Stockholm International Film Festival in November 2011.

Third album

In 2012, she released her first live album containing songs from 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 song "Hsebak Baadein" was included in Galileo's Lebanese underground music compilation entitled "Radio Beirut" released in Germany and on all online music platforms.

Lebanese Festivals 2013-2014

She opened 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 in 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, Bugge Wesseltoft, Kari Bremnes, Khalil Judran and Lina Nyberg. She has also collaborated in musical workshops and residencies in Lebanon, France, USA, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Dubai, Switzerland, Kuwait, and Egypt.

Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad from the label Kirkelig Kulturverksted has co-produced her last two albums, "A Few Images/Algumas Imagens" (2014) and "Intersection" (2017) - a collaboration with Tunisian music producer Khalil Judran.

Personal life

She married Philippe Tohme between 1997 and 2011 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, while still working in the advertising world (mainly at "Leo Burnett Advertising Beirut") to make a living and help produce her music.

Discography

Studio albums
  • "Tania Saleh" - 2002
  • "Slow Down" (single) - 2009
  • "Wehde" - 2011
  • "Tania Saleh Live at DRM" - 2012
  • "A Few Images (Algumas Imagens)" - 2014
  • "Tania Saleh - Intersection" - 2017

Compilation albums
  • "Desert Roses 5" - 2007
  • "Bagdad Heavy Metal" - 2007
  • "Radio Beirut" - 2012
  • "Sunset in Marrakesh" - 2016
  • "La Fleur Orientale" - 2016
  • "Songs from a Stolen Spring" - 2014

Collaborations
  • "Ila Assy" music by Ziad Rahbany for Fairuz - 1996
  • "Bema Enno" music by Ziad Rahbany for Joseph Sakr - 1997
  • "Salamat" music by Charbel Rouhana - 1998
  • "Drab Zeen" music by Toufic Farroukh - 2002
  • "Vice Versa" music by Charbel Rouhana - 2003
  • "Middle Eastern Oud" music by Charbel Rouhana - 2004
  • "Caramel" music by Khaled Mouzannar - 2005
  • "Where Do We Go Now" music by Khaled Mouzannar - 2011
  • "Not A Word Was Spoken" with Terry Evans - 2014
  • "Rizkallah" with Rayess Bek - 2014

References
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