Tania Saleh is known for resisting constraints, whether it’s creative or emotional.
Looked upon as doyen of Lebanon’s indie music scene, the acclaimed singer and visual artist’s three-decade career has produced politically charged and socially conscious songs that reflect both the vibrancy and fissures of her homeland.
But when leaving Beirut in 2022, she realised the weight that comes with the decision to leave home. The suitcases indeed have limits – physical, emotional and psychological.
"I couldn't take my house with me. I couldn't take my books, my paintings, my drawings, the photos of my family, my sofa, my bed, my pillows," she says. "I took maybe the collection of Joni Mitchell CDs, a book or two, some photos of my boys, simple dresses, simple shoes, and I put them all in one suitcase and I just closed the door behind me and left."
Saleh speaks to The National from her apartment in Paris, where she now lives and works. The relocation was due to a series of what she calls "unfortunate events" – the 2019 uprising, Lebanon's economic collapse, the Beirut port explosion and the lack of reliable electricity and internet.
When her two sons left to study abroad (one in Manchester, the other in Paris) she realised she could no longer stay behind alone.
"If I stayed in Lebanon by myself, I would rot slowly, but surely," she says. "Emotionally, at least. I couldn't have lived away from my boys. So I put all my energy into joining them in Europe. I didn't even know I'd end up in Paris. I applied for this special talent visa, they accepted it and I arrived."
Fragile, her new album, is a response to the change and a record of its aftermath. While Saleh has long been known for blending lyricism with social critique, Fragile marks a turn inward. Its songs unfold like private journal entries, stripped of overt commentary, marked instead by meditations, allegory and introspection.
"I love Paris, and it's a very good place for an artist to be, but I always feel like something is missing since I left Lebanon,” she says.
“The warmth of the people, the weather, the details of daily life in Lebanon - I miss them all. And the moment I don't have anything to do, the emotions creep in and eat me from the inside. That's why I run to creativity. To avoid the news. To avoid reality. To keep going."
And in those moments where that refuge doesn't work? "Oh, then I will cry my heart out," she says. "Which is not a very common thing to happen to me."
There is no grand gesture in Fragile, no sweeping statement about the state of Lebanon or the Arab world. Instead, the album's most powerful commentary lies in its restraint. Saleh worked closely with Norwegian pianist and composer Oyvind Kristiansen to craft a soundscape that feels stark and weightless.
The brooding track Inta Mashi (You Are Nothing) crystallised during those daily metro commutes in Paris, where Saleh would quietly observe the disconnection between strangers. Over a minimal synths and subdued beats, her resigned voice unfolds like both a sullen observation and an internal monologue: “You are nothing: hunching, thriving, dreaming. / You are nothing: sleeping, awake, standing and seated.”
The song ends with Saleh shaking off that inertia and reclaiming herself amid the masses: “One life within, another one abroad. They're in your heart and you in theirs/You know if you ask them, they'll say. You are everything.”
Saleh says the lyrical structure often reflects the pep talks she would give herself when the encroaching sense of isolation creeps in. “When I thought of my loved ones, of the people who care about me and whom I care for, I thought maybe that's where I become important,” she notes. That's the only place where I matter."
The album's title emerged from another minor, but evocative observation.
"My suitcases sometimes will have this sticker that reads fragile and it made me realise it was more than just my belongings,” she says. "It was also about my voice. I'm used to being critical, to speaking out. But now, I find myself silenced. Not because anyone told me to be quiet, but because I don't feel like I have the right to criticise this country that welcomed me. So I shut up. And that silence, that was hard."
That sense of quiet seeps into every song. Marajeeh (Swings) is less about the changing fortunes of relationships but the sense of being suspended above its daily pressures. In Matrah (territory) a conversation with birds, fish and trees becomes an allegory for belonging. "They have a place in the world where many of us humans don’t," she says. "And yet, somehow, that conversation with them gave me comfort. Like maybe there's still something to learn from creatures that don't question their presence."
What surprised Saleh most, however, was how much painting, a form of creative therapy, became part of the album-making process.
"I took that as a concept for the album, both visual and lyrical and musical," she says. "I started drawing paintings and working on a series of people living in their suitcases. Because it's not only me, I look around me and see almost everybody living in a small apartment, maybe one room, cramming themselves in. So I tried to translate that into paintings, in a visual storytelling kind of way."
Those paintings will be turned into postcards and exhibited at her coming concert in Beirut on July 30, her first show there since leaving.
What will it mean for her to return, even briefly? "I'm not sure how it will feel," she says. "But I know I want to show what I've made. And maybe offer a bit of beauty back into the hell we're all navigating."
The deeper question, though, isn't just how to keep creating in exile – but what it costs to create from that place. "I don't see any artist I know and admire not doing the same," she says. "Sadness is inspiring unfortunately. But the fuel for everything I do is love and my love tank is always full."
She has sought therapy in the past, but found greater comfort in more personal forms of emotional processing – writing, drawing, composing – all stemming from the act of making something that feels honest.
"It is easy to get into the heady rush of technology and using AI tools. I wanted to return to the essence of creating, the kind of expression that comes from the hand, not the machine," she says. "Maybe that's why this album feels different. Because it's not trying to explain anything. It's just me with my suitcase. Trying to keep going – emotionally, artistically, mentally."
Saeed Saeed is a 2024-25 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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Dust storm
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- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Tips for avoiding trouble online
- Do not post incorrect information and beware of fake news
- Do not publish or repost racist or hate speech, yours or anyone else’s
- Do not incite violence and be careful how to phrase what you want to say
- Do not defame anyone. Have a difference of opinion with someone? Don’t attack them on social media
- Do not forget your children and monitor their online activities
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
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