creative vision? emel mathlouthi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. now, you have had phenomenal success around the world since the arab spring, which propelled you to global fame. what is it now that still drives you to want to shake people? so many things. i guess, first of all, my passion for people and music and connecting. i feel that nowadays, more than ever, we need to connect with each other, and i feel that if we have this sense of union and empathy towards each other, i feel that the world could be a much better place. well, let s go back to 2010, 2011, and at that time your music was banned in tunisia. you were on avenue habib bourguiba in tunis, you were surrounded by crowds who were all chanting and then this happened. she sings in arabic. we are seeing you there, singing, with a candle lit in front of you, and to the crowds. when you watch it, how do you feel about that moment now? i ve always felt, um, kind of distant because ijust.me, i just remember the tension
thank you. now, you have had phenomenal success around the world since the arab spring, which propelled you to global fame. what is it now that still drives you to want to shake people? so many things. i guess, first of all, my passion for people and music and connecting. i feel that nowadays, more than ever, we need to connect with each other, and i feel that if we have this sense of union and empathy towards each other, i feel that the world could be a much better place. well, let s go back to 2010, 2011, and at that time your music was banned in tunisia. you were on avenue habib bourguiba in tunis, you were surrounded by crowds who were all chanting and then this happened. she sings in arabic. we are seeing you there, singing, with a candle lit in front of you, and to the crowds. when you watch it, how do you feel about that moment now? i ve always felt, um, kind of distant because ijust.me, i just remember the tension, and ijust remember that it wasn t all friendly around
explain the words. i m the voice of the uprisers. i m the right of the oppressed. they took away our rights and shut the door on us. what are they thinking? we are not afraid. so it very much spoke to the moment. it spoke to the moment. and what s even more interesting is that it was kind of a prophecy, because the song was written in 2007, so it was a few years before the revolution, and it was already talking about the red rose that was set on fire and that went out on the streets calling for the free. to free her. so it s literally what happened a few years later. and the lyrics are by amine al ghozzi, and i wrote the music. and when it took off, what did you think? what did you think would happen to the song, to you? i think i felt a sense of that my utopia was kind of becoming reality. and the utopia is to see a revolution happening during my lifetime, and to see
unhappy with the corruption and economic circumstances. and that is where in places like algeria and libya do pop up at the top of that list. now the other difference in those places is perhaps the security services unlike in egypt are less on the side of the people and more willing to use force against protesters. i don t think it s inevitable that we will see a repeat of egypt in any of the countries. okay. do you have the same concerns that they are willing to use force and uprisers will be squashed but then what? where do people turn? michael is right. between the monarchies and the principalcies and gulf states, they are probably more or less protected from this. where it most likely is occurring.