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
album, which.it s a play on the arabic word for woman mra. yes. and what you ve done with it is to only use women, notjust the singing on it, making the music on it, but the technicians and the engineers. how hard was it to find only women? it was hard. i remember, well, it took me some time to find my first co producer, and then it took me a lot of time to find my final overall co producer. and i remember we had moments where we. ..she was like, are you sure we can t cheat? i have my guy who can do this, you know, in two seconds. and i was like, no, we can t cheat. you know, we have to. and this is why i m doing this. so every step of the way, i felt even, the harder it got, the more secure and assured