Constitutional Council Chief Visits President Days Before Ruling on Election Rigging in Beirut 1

All the talk about fighting corruption is laughable for so many reasons. For one, it’s the same people who have exclusively been in power for generations who are complaining. For two, whenever we uncover corruption, the judiciary and executive branches come together to make it disappear like a cheap magic trick.

Today, something horrible, though not unexpected happened. The Constitutional Council, Lebanon’s judicial arm that makes sure our government doesn’t do anything unconstitutional (like rigging elections) rubber-stamped its approval to make sure that the ruling party maintains its bloated majority in parliament.

Beirut 1 and Joumana Haddad

In a very well documented case of election rigging, where solta parties ganged up to eject independents and rig the ballot boxes happened when it was clear that the “minorities” seat in Beirut 1 was the second seat the independent coalition had secured.

Armed with all the evidence, videos and witness testimonies, rightful MP Joumana Haddad appealed to the Constitutional Council, in hope the judiciary would rectify what the thuggish political parties had done.

Today, we found out that 3 out of the 10 judges still have a conscience and voted on what’s just and true, not what the politicians who appointed them order them to do.

The upstanding judges were Antoine Msarra, Zaghloul Attiyeh and Toufic Soubra. The rest voted against what they knew was the right thing to do, which is make Joumana the MP after she got the most votes, or at least redo the elections for that seat, this time with less cheating by the powers that be.

It’s interesting that during the final deliberations, the head of the council Judge Issam Sleiman, an old friend and ally of the current president, went up to Baabda and took this photo on February 4.

Now, I’m not making any accusations of course, but it’s pretty convenient that an obvious open-shut chase turned out miraculously to the president’s team’s benefit. It’s also probably not illegal, but influencing or encouraging one of Lebanon’s most important judicial arms to rule in favor of the ruling party is in bad taste and sportsmanship, if not worse.

If the ruling party honestly thinks they won fair and square, then why not redo the elections for that seat and prove us wrong, instead of go down the usual road of pressuring an already way-too-dependent judiciary to rubber-stamp their infarctions against Lebanese voters.

Hope Who?

With the bouquet of warlords in power killing us softly everyday with their corruption and ineptitude, it’s a miracle if we still have any hope in anything ever becoming better. As they gear up to shove the incinerators down our throats (or up something else) and as they divide the hundreds of millions amongst themselves, and dangle the civil marriage carrot in front of our faces before they undoubtedly fold to religious pressure while painting themselves as heros of the people, it’s hard to maintain any hope.

But, Joumana did win, and the fact they are going to these lengths to change that is encouraging, and the fact that almost a third of the judges proved they aren’t just politician puppets, makes us feel that maybe some folks in our justice system aren’t as easily bought and ordered around.

Our politicians think only as deep as their pockets, and just as far as their next heist of taxpayer money. They don’t seem to think in the long run. The more they stay in power, the more desperate we all become, but the more determined to change also.

Next elections, let’s make it harder for all the “strong” parliamentary blocs to cheat like they did last spring. Go down and vote against them, no matter what.

Religious Courts Got 40+ Million in Taxpayer Money, Paid 0 Tax in 2018

If you were the trusting kind, you’d probably think that the muslim and christian religious authorities in Lebanon truly believe that civil marriage is a “threat” to our communities. You’d think that they really are worried and scared from what would happen if a judge would rule on matters like marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. However, a single infographic by our friends at Gherbal Initiative tells you the real reason they’re losing their minds about the ever-increasing possibility of civil marriage (though only optional) might become a reality soon.

For those of you who don’t read Arabic, the column on the left is the money allocated to the “religious” and “spiritual” courts of all sects in Lebanon. It totals to 41,333,505 USD in 2018.

The column on the right is for three essential and increasingly vital ministries in Lebanon: Industry (severely neglected sector in our economy), Environment (we’re drowning in garbage and everything is polluted) and Youth & Sports (most of our teams don’t have a single dollar in funding, and our youth are getting on the first plane out of Lebanon). The money allocated for all three in 2018 was 25,558,722 USD. That’s barely 61% of what was given from your taxes for religious courts (which don’t need the money).

Pay No Taxes, No Fines

It’s well-known that the biggest land owners after Lebanese politicians, are religious institutions. Most of what your eyes fall upon while driving anywhere is owned by the church or the mosque.

These institutions are not investigated or fined for violations like the rest of us are. In other words, apart from the 41 million USD they get from the government, they pay ZERO taxes, fines, fees…

Endless Revenue Stream from Birth till Death

The tens of millions in taxpayer money, and exemption from any tax, fine or fee, is just the tip of the iceberg in the religious institution industry in Lebanon. For every single religious rite and function, from birth, weddings, funerals and everything in between for each sect and religion, these institutions charge a fee.

Conclusion

The religious leaders know full well that the number of young, sometimes mixed-sect couples going abroad to tie the knot, is growing significantly year after year. They also know that if the expensive barrier of destination weddings is removed, a lot more young couples will opt for a modern law that respects both partners and takes into consideration children’s best interests. They also know that that would decimate their bottom line, which is why they so viciously fight this and hide behind religious piety and other empty, threatening slogans.

That’s why almost every interior minister has folded under their intense pressure, from Marwan Charbel to Nohad Mashnook. Each one had a different excuse, and even PM Saad Hariri had to backtrack after he floated the possibility of optional civil marriage a few years back.

So, please stop saying it’s about people’s beliefs. No one is gonna touch those. You can still do your ceremonies in mosques and churches, but the law governing that marriage must be a modern one based on modern times, not ancient ones. One law that we all share, not 15+ different laws who are all extremely creative in robbing women and children of the basic rights.

And for all the religious leaders: shba3o ba2a, and lets us live in peace and harmony.

Offre Joie Help Decades-Old Cases Move Forward After Salvaging Judicial Archives

These aren’t ancient scrolls from a temple somewhere, they’re your judicial files…

If any of you have had the misfortune of walking into the justice palace in Beirut, or anywhere else in Lebanon, you probably felt a mixture of sadness, nausea and utter hopelessness. The state of the buildings that house our justice system make EDL seem like a 5-star hotel.

Smoking indoors, overflowing garbage bins, coffee stains on the floor, dust and paint chips on folders and files thrown haphazardly over each other with no discernible order, alphabetic, chronological or otherwise. It’s a disaster.

Offre Joie is an NGO I absolutely adore and admire. They’re always there doing the work no one else wants or could do, from rebuilding a family’s burnt down house a couple of weeks ago, to picking up and sorting the trash that swamped our streets during the garbage crisis’ peak in 2015. They work all over Lebanon, and embody what most of us hope and wish volunteer work and charitable action could be.

Why Organizing and Cleaning the Archives Matters

When my friend Mark Torbey told me what they’re planning to do, I was skeptical. Why do the job we pay government employees to do. Also, why help them prosecute the people who don’t have wastas? That was my first instinct.

Then, after reading Legal Agenda’s piece on the matter, I felt extreme gratitude and relief at the amazing job done by the men and women of Offre Joie.

The basement’s archives were wet, rotting, full of mould and infested with rats both alive and dead. These archives contained appeals court cases going back a whopping four decades.

Anyone unlucky enough to be familiar with never-ending court battles spanning years and decades will understand how frustrating it is when the judge postpones a session for 6 or 9 months, time and time again. What you might not know, is that often this happens cause no one can find the case file in the cesspool of neglect and corruption that were the Appeals Court archives in Beirut.

Thanks to Offre Joie, 35+ years of lawsuits on hold for the absurd reason of not finding files in that pigsty of a room, can now resume. A friend of mine who’s a lawyer was so happy, he asked me who was behind Offre Joie so he could thank them for basically reviving cases most people, judges and lawyers alike, thought were forever lost in that black hole of a room.

Maintaining The Archives

There is absolutely no excuse why such an important public facility was in that unforgivable state. However, while most of us would whine and curse, Offre Joie rolled up their sleeves and actually did something to make the situation better.

I hope those responsible for maintaining this archive get inspired from these young men and women’s selflessness and virtue, and make sure that the archives don’t fall into disrepair and turn into a pile of rotting garbage again. After all, these are people’s lives and livelihoods at stake, and whatever little faith in our judiciary taxpayers still have. This must not and cannot happen again, and even though I am endlessly grateful to Offre Joie, this is the government’s job and they need to start doing it instead of waiting for good citizens to go above and beyond to do something that should be a given: organize and clean a room full of JUDICIAL RECORDS AND FILES…

Civil Marriage Must Not Be Optional

This debate erupts every few years in Lebanon, with an upswell of popular support for the idea of marriage not governed by misogynistic, archaic religious laws. Popular support is often followed by politicians jumping on the opportunity to bank on it. Then, like clockwork, most religious authorities threaten with excommunication and worse, forcing our spineless politicians to retreat back to their sad original positions.

Short Case for Civil Marriage

There are almost infinite reasons why we need to have civil marriage in Lebanon, but I’ll list just a few now given that the purpose of this post isn’t to elaborate why civil unions need to be legal in Lebanon, but why they need to be compulsory.

Our constitution says that we are all equal under the law, but how can we even begin to believe that and implement it, when we have over 15 different personal status laws in one tiny country. This means that a Maronite mother isn’t equal to a Sunni mom, nor a Shia or Druze one. Same goes for the fathers and the kids. How can we expect to be equal under law, when there isn’t one law that’s written after the Dark Ages and takes into consideration basic stuff, like rape is wrong, men and woman are equal and kids wellbeing shouldn’t be decided by archaic religious laws that make no sense in the 21st Century and cause far more harm than good (if any).

Our personal status law is broken, and highly favors abusive men over their abused spouses. Kids are often the most affected victims, since religious courts don’t take into account the best interests of the child, just wooden laws and the arbitrary numbers in them. Look at the mother who went on a hunger strike and camped out in front of Bkerke the past few days as an example for how dysfunctional and detrimental these religious courts and laws are.

For the one-track-minded people that only see things in dollar signs and lira pounds, those with the education and the means, will probably hop on a plane to Cyprus or Greece, and tie the knot there. That means losing all the money they would have spent here on celebrating their love with their loved ones. It’s so commonplace, that travel agents have been offering special “civil marriage in Cyprus” packages for years now. Just look what I found with a quick Google search…

Why It Must Be Mandatory

For all their dysfunction, religious courts in Lebanon are like everything else: if you have a wasta and some money, you can get things done fairly quick. A good lawyer and enough money to burn, and even Maronites can get a divorce these days.

Apart from that bitter reality, people with the means will usually opt out for the Cyprus/Greece/Europe marriage route. That’s because they know it’s in their best interests, and the best interests of their future children if they decide to have any.

This means that folks with a little money to spare and with enough education and awareness to know the threat and damage of going down the religious court road, can easily avoid it.

Of course, being able to tie the knot under civil laws that aren’t thousands of years old, in our own country, is much less of a hassle, but the real misfortune is for a majority of people who under our corrupt government do not have the means to escape to better country to exercise their natural right of getting married and starting a family.

That’s why keeping it optional is the wrong step to take, given that the women that need it the most, will not be granted that choice by their conservative, patriarchal communities that still believe gender equality and treating women as human beings and as equals is an “imperialist conspiracy to destroy our societies”. Yeah, cause a man being able to rape and kill his wife without going to jail is what keeps our society together. Shame.

In other words, women that are most at risk of abuse and murder, whose husbands and brothers/fathers can kill them without going to jail, as we’ve seen time and again, will not be safe if this is only optional. Just like mothers who will stick with abusive fathers because the priest or sheikh will take custody away from her, and they don’t want to lose their sons and daughters to the monsters they unfortunately married or were forced to marry. They often ending up losing their lives and happiness, just for a chance to stay with their kids.

Stop Thinking Rights = West

We weren’t always this women-hating in this part of the world. The notion that having human and civil rights is somehow contradictory to Arab culture and heritage, is absurd. It might be the heritage of a few bedouin tribes who have a lot of money now, but for the rest of us, women were never seen as wretched animals who deserve to be abused and robbed of their dignity and rights.

Extremists who use such rhetoric do not represent the majority, and the fact they tie civil marriage to zionism and imperialism and whatever isms they find in fashion goes to show how they have absolutely no argument except facile scaremongering that they keep repeating in hopes we’ll bite. We won’t.

I hope Rayya El Hassan’s pledge to work on making civil marriage a reality is sincere, and that her commitment to combating domestic violence does yield some results, where women who seek help are not ridiculed and downplayed, and their rapists and murderers stop getting off the hook thanks to the archaic mentalities shaped by our broke personal status law, governed by old, angry men in black robes.

Lebanese Government’s Policy Seems to be Playing Both Sides for Handouts

I’m not really worried about stuff like “dignity” and “honor”, but the current Lebanese government’s apparent policy of playing both sides in hopes of getting more freebies, is low, even for the government that has plunged us in garbage and darkness for decades.

Qatar-Saudi Handouts

During the recent Arab League Economic Summit in Lebanon which failed to garner any attention or usefulness, Qatar bought 500 million USD in government bonds that helped us stay afloat as our economy tanks while they bicker about the pieces of the rotten cake of garbage that is our ministries.

This was much welcome, and a sign of good faith from Qatar which has always swooped in and helped Lebanon right before it falls off a cliff.

This didn’t sit well with Saudi Arabia, who days later decided to actually lift their travel ban off of Lebanon (after always suggesting they will), almost a decade after they imposed it. They also said that they are ready to help “all the way” in an obvious attempt to respond to the generous Qatari half a billion USD to the boat with a hole that is Lebanon’s government coffers.

So, now, the government is fishing with other “friendly” nations for more hand outs, playing the high tensions between all of them to try and basically extort them into outdoing each other in handouts, while doing absolutely nothing to fix the local economy and stimulate growth.

Iran-USA

After the entire Hezbollah crew suddenly started demanding we take weapons and military aid from Iran almost simultaneously, adding pressure on the newly formed and already crippled government. The Trump sanctions make dealing with Iran, especially in military stuff, particularly tricky.

Add to that the fact that over 80% of the Lebanese Army’s weapons, vehicles, uniforms and even bullets are aid sent from the US, and it makes the situation even stickier.

However, given that the US would never give our army weapons that threaten Israel’s air superiority, means that best case scenario these weapons are used against terrorist fighters, and worst case scenario they’re used as crowd control when we are protesting drowning in garbage. This gives an air of legitimacy to the Hezbollah demand out of the blue, with the excuse Iran might supply the army with air defenses that could stop Israel’s constant invasion of Lebanese airspace.

It took only a few days for the US Air Force to send us a fresh shipment of 16 million dollars’ worth of laser-guided missiles for the A-29 Super Tucano planes they sent the army earlier. This was to shore up the 2.3 billion USD already donated since 2005 to “the sole, legitimate defender” of Lebanon.

The Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Beirut, as well as the revolving door of high-ranking US officials is a tit-for-tat scenario where each side is trying to one-up or best the other.

“The US is giving you weapons? We can give you better ones. No wait, here’s some high-tech missiles.”

The Government Position

The alleged “neutrality” Lebanon takes seems to be a docile approach to all powers as long as they butter us up with some handouts.

This is unsustainable, and humiliating. We shouldn’t be waiting and praying for some money and a couple of guns, when we could instead get our house in order and stop relying solely on foreign aid and develop our own economic growth and purchase our own weapons.

This hand-out mentality has become the norm, not the exception. Paris 1, 2, 3 and now Cedre are bandaids for a 20cm gash across the country’s chest. They do nothing but fill the pockets of our politicians, while putting us, the people, in more debt with absolutely no improvement in daily life, but rather worsening of basic necessities we need to survive, like water and food, electricity and clean air to breathe.We can’t wait for Saudi to deposit a billion here and withdraw a billion there to ensure our economy and currency doesn’t completely collapse.

A Chat with Sarah Khawand: Lebanese Producer of Xzibit’s Latest Music Video

I met Sarah years ago in one of Beirut’s legendary never-ending parties by the sea. It was right before she embarked on her journey to Los Angeles, to study film directing at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

Since then, Sarah’s career has kicked off and she’s worked with amazing artists like Tyler the Creator, Kali Uchis, Dita Von Teese, Madison Beer, and directors like James Franco, Nadia Lee Cohen, Luke Gilford and Renata Raksha.

I was in Los Angeles last month, and got to sit down and have a chat with Sarah about her recent work. First, here’s the Xzibit music video she produced that was released last November:

How did your journey in LA start?

Sarah: When I came to Los Angeles 4 years ago, I didn’t expect my life to turn the way it did. It started when I got accepted at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in the Film Directing program because of my
thesis film Porn This Way at ALBA. It caused quite a stir. From the get
go, I had to fight hard for every opportunity. Few weeks in, CalArts introduced us to Sean Baker (Oscar-nominated director for The Florida Project). I went on to work with him on the set of Snowbird featuring the KENZO Spring-Summer 2016 collection and the super talented Abbey Lee.

What has it been like as a director in LA?

I started directing short films around the persona of Molly Pop. I wanted my films to deal with a girl’s everyday struggles, sexuality and road to success. I portray women as superheroes who live their lives without any social or sexual restraints. It was very important for me as a director to find my voice and master it.

I would definitely say I love highly stylized esthetics and bright colors. How could I transform my reality into a fantasy where I have control over the rules of this world. After several films, I finally made a short
musical called LA Girl in collaboration with the music school at CalArts, I
got the opportunity to work with amazingly talented artists and musicians.

That process was a huge learning experience for me: from writing the script, shaping it around the songs’ lyrics, recording all the live instruments, making the costumes, the choreography… I directed it and starred in it, and it was a dream to direct myself in the surreal world of Molly Pop.

You really can’t know how it will look like until it all comes together. But the hard work paid off, and it premiered at Redcat Roy and Edna Disney/CALARTS Theater. It was also selected to screen at CAA (Creative Artists Agency) as part of Moebius 2018 which is a private industry screening to showcase talent from USC, AFI and CALARTS.

How did you end up producing a music video for Xzibit? Can you walk us through that?

Since I was a little girl, I spent my summers watching music videos. I knew after coming to LA that I wanted to get involved in music video production. At CalArts, I met my business partner Xavier Hamel and we laucnhed our company After Hours Studios. We collaborated with several artists like Bebe Huxley, Love Bailey and Candy Ken. We also got featured in Paper
Magazine, OUT Magazine, Galore and others.

As for the Xzibit video, I met director Matthew Barnes who loved and truly believed in my work. After working together, he gave me the opportunity to produce the new XZIBIT music video featuring B-Real
from Cypress Hill. I couldn’t believe it. It was both exciting and challenging. It was the first project on this level that I handled on my own. The director had a very clear idea of what he wanted and my job was to get everything together and make it happen.

We had a crazy hit and run scene, so I had to figure out how to make
that stunt happen; all I can say is that I learnt a LOT and that I’m so grateful for this opportunity.

What message are you trying to send with Molly Pop and your other work, which seems to be geared towards women?

My goal right now is to keep producing and directing music videos for artists I admire. I also want to develop LA Girl into a feature film and continue the story of Molly Pop. My films are my own political act against a society (Lebanon) where it’s hard to be a woman that embraces her sexuality.

Women have to be pretty and sexy, they have to look “presentable” and “respectful”, while the stigma around sex is still very big: women have to be sexy for the gaze of other people but are looked down
upon if they have sex or engage in anything sexual for their own pleasure.

It’s like we’ve become sex objects. Lebanon, where women have more rights relative to other Middle-Eastern countries, can be a
positive thing at first glance but sexism is still largely and obviously there. People tend to think that it is enough, that Lebanese women should be grateful it’s not as bad as other Arab countries. That’s a very
dangerous thought, and I feel that the conversation for meaningful change is far from starting.

The #KeepWalkingLebanon Expo

My friends who work at ad agencies know how much of a headache I am, and how unimpressed I am with most campaigns. I’ve managed to keep this blog free of press releases for the past 9 years, and only share and comment when I really like something, or really don’t.

The Johnnie Walker Keep Walking Lebanon campaign is one I am particularly fond of. It so happens that I was an intern at Leo Burnett Beirut when it was being made, so that made me appreciate it even more. I’m sure most of you in my age bracket and above remember that black and white ad with Bernard Khoury narrating, and images of his most infamous creations serving as a backdrop for his story, that quite frankly is perfect for a “keep walking” example.

I can’t believe that that ad was 10 years ago, an entire decade. This year, and over the past ten months, Johnnie Walker decided to give today’s university students and rising artists a chance to demonstrate their progressive ideas, and help them develop them in the run-up to the expo.

The Process

Architecture, interior design and fashion design were the disciplines targeted for the project. The idea was simple: what’s your interpretation of Keep Walking Lebanon?

Mentors were tapped to help develop each idea over the course of 4 months. Bernard Khoury, Azzi & Osta, Nada Debs, Wissam Smayra and Bechara Mouzannar helped the 14 teams selected from the initial 200 submissions.

The Expo

What started out as 200 submissions by university students from across Lebanon, ended up being 14 finalist projects that will be exhibited on February 7, 8, 9 at KED in Karantina.

The public will help choose the top 3 by voting when they visit the exhibit, and the 3 finalists will get a cash prize, apart from exhibiting their diverse projects. They also get internships with the pioneer mentors in each of their fields.

Details here.

Lea Baroudi Honored by the Queen with British Order of Chivalry

In my 28 years, I’ve been lucky to work with many amazing people who I have learned a lot from. On top of that list is undoubtedly Lea Baroudi, whom I serve as vice to in the NGO dear to my heart: MARCH Lebanon.

I remember when I was being called up for investigations left and right, and had nowhere to turn to, I’d call Lea and MARCH for legal assistance and support. Since then, I’ve been part of this NGO in different capacities, and it is undoubtedly the most rewarding experience of my life.

The Unbelievable Success Story

I’ve chronicled on this blog the many years we’ve been working in Tripoli, from the first days of the first auditions for “Love and War on the Rooftop”, where Lea would search young bearded fighters and confiscate their knives, guns and grenades before going into the hall we’d rehearse in.

Just a few years later, and the impact of MARCH’s many projects in Tripoli, Akkar and Beirut has been resounding, with Hona Beirut and Kahwetna Tripoli being focal points of peace building, capacity building and job creation for Lebanon’s most at-risk young men and women.

Young men who would have fought for terrorist groups and organized crime, give capacity building workshops today and run drug awareness campaigns in their communities.

The British Embassy Support

Without the support of the British Embassy in Beirut, and people like Sarah Krofol, Tom Hartley and former ambassador Hugo Shorter and their teams, these projects would not have been possible.

To see Lea honored for “outstanding achievements or service to the community that has a long-term, significant impact and stands out as an example to others.” is a proud but also humbling moment.

Congratulations Lea, You Make Us Proud

Lea, I’d like to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for this hard-earned commendation. You helped restore my faith in Lebanon and how the solution to most of our problems is the forgotten young men and women across the country. It’s been an honor since 2013, and to many more years to come!

IQOS Heets Now Available in Beirut and Dubai Duty Free

After years of waiting, Lebanese people who swtiched from traditional cigarettes to IQOS devices can finally get Heets on the way to and from Lebanon.

Rumors had been swirling that IQOS would be coming to Lebanon in 2019, but so far only in the Beirut International Airport Duty Free (departures and arrivals). No word yet as to when it’ll be available in the domestic Lebanese market.

This happened almost simultaneously in Beirut and Dubai, with the 10-pack selling for 35$ in Beirut, less than the 40$+ price in the UAE. This is welcome news, given some smugglers are charging as much as 70$ a box, or $5 to $7 a pack (without paying any taxes).

At the moment, only Heets are on sale in Beirut Duty Free, not the IQOS device, which seems to already be available in Dubai’s Duty Free.

Blu Fiefer: The Prelude EP Launch

I consider myself quite lucky to have witnessed Blu Fiefer’s journey as a musician and artist from the very beginning. Artists like her are a rare breed these days. Her work inspires and surprises me constantly, and I always look forward to see and listen to what she’s got in store for her fans next.

That’s why when her new EP “The Prelude” launched and became number 1 on iTunes earlier this month, I thought I’d have a little chat with Blu about that, so that the unlucky few who haven’t been exposed to her art yet, you can catch up on what you’ve missed before going to rage at her EP launch on January 26, 2018.

Who’s Blu?

Blu Fiefer is a Mexican-Lebanese Hip Hop and Pop artist. She’s a singer, songwriter, producer and director. Her multi-faceted approach to her art has set her apart in the past few years both in Lebanon and abroad, and it’s one of the things I admire most about her.

Her music is both original and accessible, with a sonic landscape infused with quirky melodies, hard-hitting beats and haunting harmonies. Blu’s music keeps true to the story-telling, message-laden ethos of Hip Hop and adapts it to fit her unique perspective as a Mexican-Lebanese young woman.

Girl’s Gotta Eat Music Video

If you haven’t watched Blu’s “Girl’s Gotta Eat” music video, then please take a couple of minutes to watch it below.

I absolutely loved this video, and all the messages and symbols I picked up on while watching it. That’s why I took the chance to chat with Blu about it, and here’s what she had to say.

Gino: How did “Girl’s Gotta Eat” happen, can you tell us your process in creating this bold single?

Blu: Girl’s Gotta Eat as a track started with me talking shit to the mic a few years ago, I didn’t think the track would be relatable to anyone and never thought to include it in my EP ‘The Prelude’, let alone as a single, but once I started performing it, in London, AUB Outdoors, and opening for 6black in Beirut and Abu Dhabi, I noticed peoples reaction to it — specifically girls coming to me after the shows and telling me how inspiring and empowering it was.

“I noticed peoples reaction to it — specifically girls coming to me after the shows and telling me how inspiring and empowering it was.”

I had a lot of conversations about it and decided to finish the track, at the time it was only a verse and a chorus. When writing the rest of it I was inspired by my Mexican roots and how unapologetic and unfiltered their writing is over mariachi songs or their traditional music. Once I wrote the sentence ‘mandale saludos a tu tu madre’ everyone around me that heard it was asking me what it means, I would translate in arabic ‘sallemle 3a omak’ and everyone would laugh, this is when I saw the perfect opportunity with encouragement from my team to pay tribute to both my nationalities, the Mexican and the Lebanese.

Gino: The music video was something else. I felt like an all-female cast was meant as a message, was it? And can you tell us more about the video, which you directed as well?

When the time came for me to direct a video for the single, I posted a casting call on my Instagram for woman of all ages, shapes, sizes, color including drag queens. The response was overwhelming and I knew I had to push the video in this direction. I had an 8-hour casting call where I had long conversations with girls about society and the daily oppression that is not talked about often enough.

That happened around the time the videos started coming out of LAU about the importance of virginity which made us all very frustrated.

That happened around the time the videos started coming out of LAU about the importance of virginity which made us all very frustrated. I had conversations with drag queens about what people’s biggest misconceptions about them where. I decided to just throw a party with unapologetic everyday real women and drag queens and just shoot. I wanted to showcase an environment that is not generally exposed, especially in our region and give representation.

We didn’t tell people how to move or act or sit, or how to be more ‘lady-like’. I didn’t tell them to wear make up or be someone they are not, I told them to come as they would if I was throwing a party, and these girls did amazing, the vibe was so inspiring and supportive — we had so much fun.

It was genuine moments that I had a blast editing. What I really wanted to include aesthetically was Lebanese influences that highlighted the context we were in. I included, tawlet zahr, Aarak, Shawarma etc…

I often feel like I live in my bubble with my accepting friends who share the same beliefs in equality like I do, so sometimes I forget that from the general public point of view, being unapologetic and unfiltered is somewhat revolutionary, especially for young girls that are constantly being told how they need to be and how they need to live their lives.

I forget that from the general public point of view, being unapologetic and unfiltered is somewhat revolutionary, especially for young girls that are constantly being told how they need to be and how they need to live their lives.

It was such an amazing experience for me and I formed a bond with each and every one of the girls, and that’s what made the video what it is.

For a song like this where I might have been called ‘woozieh’ to make it to the #1 on iTunes is an achievement for all of us and hopefully it’ll open up the doors for more people to express themselves and take risks instead of thinking of what they need to be to fit ‘the norm’.

Catch Blu Fiefer’s EP launch on January 26, 2018 at The Ballroom Blitz.

You can RSVP and get your tickets here! See you all on Saturday!

Gino’s Blog

Author: what2doha