Lebanese singer and composer Abeer Nehme released a new single titled 'Fallou' on 11 February on her YouTube channel.

Composed by Nehme, the single comes as the singer is preparing for her upcoming album to be released by Universal Music MENA.

Prior to the album’s launch, the singer plans to showcase two music videos. The songs in the new album will talk about the reality surrounding us and how many experiences stimulate our feelings and choices.

With the lyrics written by Ghassan Matar, Fallou embodies the idea of absence in all of its forms and the effect it leaves on a person; how it reflects on the emotions of a person trying to overcome his wounds.

Being the protagonist of the music video, Fallou becomes Nehme's testomony to her personal experiences and how she had to cope with pain and loneliness numerous times.

Embedded in her exceptional voice and poignant delivery, whereas Nehme is delivering the meanings with great force and grace, without being pitiable, the song becomes a touching invitation for the listener to revisit their own pains and gain strength to confront them.

“I am a woman, and my story guides me. I lived through very difficult experiences, including miscarriages several months into the pregnancy. I lived in a state of loneliness and displacement. Thousands of women deal with this pain daily, silently, behind the closed door. We are going through many difficult days, in which the presence of pain, loss, and isolation have become major factors of our life,” Nehme writes in her Facebook post.

She adds that “we must not forget that we are there for one another. You are not alone.”

Nehme also thanks all the team that worked on the single, starting with the “creative poet, Matar”. She mentions her “dear friend” Tarek Skaikar, who did the music arrangement; Jean Pierre Boutros Studios, where the song was recorded, mixed, and mastered; Elie Fahed, the music video director who “created distinctive visuals that translate the lyrics”; and the whole technical team, which worked hard despite the exceptional circumstances.

“Thank you to the stylist, Jeff Aoun, and the make-up artist, Paul Shahoud. Thank you to friends and loved ones who are always with me in every moment. Thank you for the time, effort, and your love”



 

Born in Lebanon in 1980, Abeer Nehme is a singer, composer, and musicologist. Her repertoire includes compositions inspired by a rich Arabic tradition and ethnic genres; from tarab music, traditional folk songs, Lebanese traditional music, and Rahbani music, to Arabo-Andalusian songs, sacred music from the Syriac-Maronite, Syriac-Orthodox, and Byzantine cultures.

Often referred to as “the strongest voice of the Arab world” and “the specialist of all styles”, Nehme has a unique ability to move across a variety of music genres, mastering the performance of each of them. Her strength is especially evident in interpretations of liturgical music set in the traditional Middle Eastern style and contemporary Western music.

The shifts between different styles keep returning in many of Nehme’s performances, as well as bigger projects.

Composed by Nehme, her 2009 album Abirou Salati (Aroma of My Prayer) is a journey through old music traditions, profound spiritualism, to religions as they are perceived by people in the 21st century through contemporary religious chants.

Her musicology background helped her in reaching an unprecedented success with the 40-episode documentary series titled Ethnopholia Music of the Nations, which received the Murex d'Or Prize for Best Documentary (2010), while Nehme received the Murex d'Or Prize for the best voice in the Arab world.

In Ethnopholia, Nehme travels the world in search of the roots of folk and ethnic music, observing and sharing the cultural traditions of different people.

Prior to Ethnopholia, Nehma was also awarded the Wadih Al-Safi Academic Prize (2000) and the Honorary Prize of the Apostoliki Diakonia from Greece (2007).

Nehme graduated from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, a private Catholic university in Lebanon, with a bachelor’s degree then a master’s degree in music.

She sings in 12 languages, appearing in orchestral performances, operas, and musicals throughout the Middle East, but also in Europe and North America.

She accompanied many well-known stars of the Arab world and was an honoured guest in international festivals throughout the world and with international philharmonic orchestras. In 2006, she appeared in a Rahbani Brothers’ play starring Lebanese diva Fairouz. She also performed with Marcel Khalife on several occasions.

In 2009, singing in a Lebanese dialect, she joined Ramy Ayash in the song Belaaks (On the Contrary), an oriental jazz arrangement of a popular Cuban song Quizás, quizás, quizás.

Abeer Nehme performs across the Arab world and internationally. She gave a concert in Cairo, at Al-Genaina theatre (Al-Azhar Park) in 2016.

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