about

IN CONTEXT: BACKGROUND​

HM is an unpredictable artist, as most independent Arab artists of her generation are. HM, like all independent Arab artists of her generation, was part of building the regional music scene while also making music and developing artistically, releasing originals before, during and after the major shifts of the industry over the past ten years. They relied on artist-led grassroots initiatives and localized underground networks to overcome the logistical, social/cultural, economic and political challenges of the industry’s fragmented infrastructure. Being resourceful and self-sufficient was a basic requirement for all areas of the profession from recording to promotion but especially with organizing regional tours. HM was one of a handful of independent female artists in Jordan at the time – and a relatively small group regionally – a position that came with its own set of challenges, and a sense of responsibility to contribute to changing that reality.    Unlike her peers though, a third factor also shaped HM’s perspective: living between two very different home bases (Jordan and US) during the first few years as an artist. Perhaps that’s what enabled her to capture the feeling of belonging to everything and nothing all at once through song, and also what encouraged her to carve her own path artistically.
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Press photo Hana Malhas Vintage faux Bil3aks promo shoot

ARTIST

HOW JORDANIAN MUSICIANS ARE FINDING SUCCESS WITH NEW GENRES MADE IN THE MIDDLE EAST’: “UNTIL NOW, AND SIMILAR TO THE GLOBAL INDUSTRY, THE CONTEMPORARY BAND AND ELECTRONIC LANDSCAPE HAS BEEN LARGELY MALE DOMINATED. THAT SAID, THERE ARE SEVERAL RISING ARTISTS AND BREAKTHROUGH STARS WHO SHOW SIGNS OF LEAVING THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS IN THE DUST. ONE OF THESE IS SINGER-SONGWRITER HANA MALHAS, WHOSE TRACK NASI WAS RECENTLY FEATURED IN UNIVERSAL RECORDS’ MENA COMPILATION, NOW: BEST OF INDIE ARABIA VOLUME II.”  – MAHA EL NABAWI, THE NATIONAL

PERFORMING musician

consumed yet liberated

Hana Malhas is a powerful performer camouflaging an introverted lyricist. Her stage set is intense, playful, & unapologetically raw. She performs with a confident vulnerability, consumed yet liberated – three words that also describe her personality. 

“MAGIC ON STAGE – AN ENTERTAINER ALONG WITH A STUNNING VOICE” -BLACK CRYSTAL CAFE, GW S STATON.

Hana Malhas Live at Summer Jam 2022 In Motion closeup Black and White photo

“A SONGSTRESS WITH A 10,000-WATT VOICE…IT’S AS IF THE MUSIC IS TAKING OVER HER BODY, CHANNELING THROUGH HER LUNGS IN A SORT OF VELVET EXPLOSION


…SHE HAS AN INFECTIOUS SMILE, AND A PLAYFUL WAY OF GROOVING ONSTAGE, PERFORMING WITH EITHER PIANO OR GUITAR” – NICK SEELY, JO MAGAZINE

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“…HER VOICE HAS A GREAT DEAL OF TEXTURE AND SOUL.” – JAMES M. MANHEIM, ANN ARBOR OBSERVER
Hana Malhas Close Up Purple Lights Scene Festival In the Zone

her songs sound like...

Her catalog of indie-alternative songs in Arabic and English showcases a metamorphosis over time, from acoustic folk & folk-rock, to electro-acoustic pop blends, to more pronounced overlaps of high-energy cross-genre hooks, richer orchestral landscapes, and bolder electronic arrangements – while still maintaining the raw vulnerability in expression of her original singer-songwriter sound.

latest releases

‘Endal Eneed’ (2022) features an addictive oud riff that builds into house drops & head bops that keep you moving while still connecting to the darker solitude of lyrically-driven verse vocals over minimal bass lines. ‘Mazar’ (2022), infuses subtle hip-hop grooves into her folk-rock origins, as the song builds up to an anthemic blues rock chorus.
“SHE DELIVERS SOUL-STIRRING SONGS WITH GREAT INTENSITY.” -MARTIN BANDYKE, ANN ARBOR’S 107ONE

PERFORMING musician

her songs feel like...

Listening to HM’s songs is like meeting a stranger who feels like someone you’ve known your whole life. f you relate to her music, it’s because you’re the kind of listener that connects to songs that bring you a step closer towards freedom. The kind of songs that belong only to the listener. If you relate to her music, it’s because her songs connect you to the parts of yourself that you’re sometimes afraid to look at, as she asks questions you suppress and declares words you hold back, reminding you that freedom found introspectively is untouchable.
“JORDANIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER HANA MALHAS HAS HER OWN WAY OF EVOKING FEELINGS YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD BURIED” – PROJECT REVOLVER

The Jordanian singer-songwriter commits to authenticity and evolution in her creative process, collaborating with talented producers that understand her choice to embrace genre-bending hybrids without losing her core artistic identity. 

Hana Malhas Live Stage Summer Jam 2022

lyrical themes

HM is driven by an unrelenting need to freely express what she experiences in realtime. 

 

 

She writes within themes that, at their core, revolve around unfiltered self-awareness and transformational self-empowerment.

 

HM writes lyrics with narratives on life’s defining moments – moments which often exist in the mundane details, but are in fact deeply rooted in buried emotional intensity. 

 

Until she digs them up and writes them into the spaces between truth, nostalgia, reality and fantasy, however her imagination dictates, sometimes from alternating perspectives. 

 

 

The human condition is wired to find ways to understand and connect, and this is her way of communicating. 

 

Themes dealing with identity and belonging, our relationship with time, relativity and death, addiction, alluring escapism, loneliness and imprisonment parallels, longing for what was and what wasn’t, complications of love, betrayal, and forgiveness that double as social statements, are some examples. Recurring references to nature. 

 

 

 

 

writing style

Her writing style has been described as layered to hold multiple meanings – prompting recurring interview questions about their intended message. HM expertly deflects, but openly admits that her songs hold her deepest truths and a map of her experiences. She just enjoys sharing music that leaves the listener free to adopt the songs as their own.

“…[MALHAS]’S SONGS ARE BOTH DEEPLY FELT AND FULL OF FRESH IMAGES…A SONG ABOUT A LINGERING ATTRACTION ENDS UNEXPECTEDLY WITH “SOME WORDS ARE ONLY MEANT TO BE SUNG”… MALHAS HAS AN UNUSUAL KNACK FOR USING ELEMENTAL NATURE IMAGES WITH EMOTIONAL RESONANCES (“I CRUMBLE LIKE SALT, AND YOU SINK LIKE A STONE”)…A FEW OF HER SONGS HAVE AMBITIOUS, DARK LYRICS THAT CAN BE READ IN MULTIPLE WAYS.” – JAMES MANHEIM, ANN ARBOR OBSERVER.

influences

HM draws on influences from her Arab roots (as a Jordanian with inter-faith Palestinian and Lebanese ancestry), her childhood classical music training, and her love of lyrically driven alternative songs. You can also hear the formative influence of a rich music community in Michigan in her earlier acoustic folk releases – a community that inspired her to turn music into a passionate profession. Whether you’re listening to her earlier acoustic folk-rock singer-songwriter sound – (a sound influenced by a rich indie music community in Michigan that inspired her to take music from a passion, to a passionate profession), or you enjoy her more recent genre-bending songs that infuse electro-pop & orchestral landscapes into the mix (drawing from her Arab roots as a Jordanian, her childhood classical music training, and her love of contemporary indie sounds), you realize that her choices aren’t random. They are the choices of an artist that knows who she is, with an unrelenting need to express what she experiences in real time. 

past performances

HM has shared the stage with Faraj Sleiman, El Far3i, Aziz Maraka, Ali Loka, Emel Mathlouthi, Masar Egbari, Noel Kharman, Lena Chamamyan, El-Morabba3, and more.


Recent performance highlights of 2022 include: Summer Jam Festival (Amman), Scene Festival (Amman), Syrup Stage (Riyadh), The Music Space (Jeddah), and of 2019: RedBull’s Local Vocals festival Amman. Past performances include diverse venues and locations including Jordan, KSA, UAE, Turkey, Egypt, Michigan).

From the outside, HM’s artistic and professional decisions might seem odd, but in context the threads weave into a single conclusion: She expresses genuinely what she experiences in real time and explores new ideas openly.

Whether you’re listening to HM’s earlier acoustic folk-rock sound, influenced by her musical foundations formed in Michigan, or you enjoy her more recent electronic-infused orchestral arrangements of Arabic & English tracks,  (integrating both childhood & contemporary influences),

 

YOU REALIZE THAT HER ARTISTIC CHOICES AREN’T RANDOM. HM COMMITS TO ONLY TWO RULES: AUTHENTICITY AND EVOLUTION, RESULTING IN A BLENDED SOUND AND A LAYERED WRITING STYLE THAT ARE UNIQUELY HERS. HM DEMONSTRATES A RANGE OF LYRICAL THEMES THAT, AT THEIR CENTER, REVOLVE AROUND SELF-AWARENESS AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS THE LEVEL REQUIRED?

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WHICH ARE THE FEATURES?

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WHAT IS THE LEVEL REQUIRED?

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WHICH ARE THE FEATURES?

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singer-songwriter

creative process

Her latest releases are examples of how past creative leaps can become catalysts for songs that follow. ‘Ya Msafer Wahdak’ (2022) is one example. The electro-pop/trip-hop radical remake of the legendary classic led to bolder blended arrangement decisions in the originals that followed. Similarly, ‘Nasi’ (2018), HM’s first original Arabic song, started as a singular experiment that enabled HM to cultivate her own unique sound of an Arabic song, one that she developed to release more Arabic originals.  Evolving artistically without losing the essence of her core singer-songwriter style – a style that earned her earlier demo of ‘How We Love’ (featured on her EP ‘Hana Malhas & the Overthinkers’) a nomination in the Independent Music Awards/Singer-Songwriter category, alongside Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’. The fully produced version was released years later in 2021, a mournful choir-backed ballad, after multitudes of times performing it live in various arrangements.    HM’s affinity for artistic exploration started early on, when she co-produced a debut album, (full version only available on youtube or limited edition CDs) that was recorded across 2 time zones to feature 18 Jordanian and American musicians of various styles.
Hana Malhas Closeup Live Shoman

‘MALHAS REMAINS PERCEPTIVE AND GROUNDED. EVEN IN TRACKS LIKE “CODE”, WHICH FLIRTS WITH EXUBERANT DANCE POP AND GLEEFUL ABANDON, THERE IS A THOUGHTFUL, INTROSPECTIVE MELANCHOLY THAT ANCHORS EVERYTHING IN SOMETHING TANGIBLE AND INCREDIBLY REAL…MALHAS HAS INDISPUTABLY EVOLVED, BUT SHE STAYS TRUE TO HERSELF AND RETAINS HER GIFT OF FINDING ‘BEAUTY IN DAMAGE.’

– ARAB NEWS: THE TOP ALTERNATIVE ALBUMS OF 2018 FROM THE ARAB WORLD

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