Lana Lubany on latest EP 'YAFA', representing Arab artists, and honouring her Palestinan culture • Interview • DIY Magazine

Lana Lubany can pinpoint the exact moment she found her true voice as an artist. The breakthrough came in the middle of a particularly tough chapter at the end of 2021 for the Palestinian-American songwriter, who had previously spent the best part of her lifetime trying to come to terms with her real identity.

“I was really not in a good place, I was very depressed and desperate for things to work with my art because it hadn’t clicked for a very long time,” she tells DIY from her temporary tour basecamp in Istanbul. “I wrote an unreleased song with a few Arabic lyrics in the verses and, whenever those particular lines came around, something just felt different. It was a gateway and it changed everything for me.”

It was no coincidence that the next song she penned next was viral hit ‘THE SNAKE’; a monumental moment for Arabic music as a whole, the bilingual ballad effortlessly bridged both worlds to create something truly immersive. Set over an ethereal acoustic guitar line, the anthem builds into a gripping slice of alt-pop as she flickers between Arabic and English: “Bright yellow eyes / Staring into my soul / Singing sweet lullabies / While they measure my skull.”

Since that game-changing moment, Lubany has continued to effortlessly invite listeners into her own vivid world, assuming her position as a trailblazing voice at the very forefront of Western-Arabic music. Growing up in Palestine before moving to London to study music in her early twenties, she says it was a lengthy journey to becoming this open and comfortable.

“I grew up not having any representation,” she explains. “I never intended to be so vulnerable with my music. It was a scary experience but I had to become the person that I needed growing up.” Lubany says the journey came with its own obstacles along the way. “You have to really dig deep and look within to tap into something that you’re afraid of,” she continues. “As soon as I wrote a song that had Arabic in it, everything clicked. It helped me accept myself after a long identity pursuit.”

With Lubany leading the way, it feels like there’s no shortage of Arabic artists finding global stardom right now. Having opened for her friend and viral rapper Saint Levant for a run of sold out shows across Europe earlier in the year, does she feel like the narrative is beginning to shift? “I think there’s definitely a lot more people out there providing people like me representation,” she says. “That part of the world is being explored more through the arts and that’s so cool; suddenly there’s exciting things coming out of the Middle East and its diaspora. I don’t know where it’s going to head but I know it’s going to go far and it’s an honour to be a part of it.”

She also attributes parallels to breakthrough artists in Western culture, with a standout 2024 moment coming when she supported The Last Dinner Party earlier in the year. “I learned so much through watching them perform every night, they’re very inspiring to watch. I love artists who build worlds and it was so fun performing on those big stages to a lot of people who didn’t know me necessarily.”

Having spent so much time on the road this year, Lubany has been able to see the impact her music has had on the Arab diaspora first hand. “I’ve had people come up to me and say that, because of my music, they feel proud to be Arab now,” she muses. “I think that was so beautiful and such a privilege. “I’ve had so many people tell me that they want to learn Arabic through it as well which is really special.”

“I’ve had people come up to me and say that, because of my music, they feel proud to be Arab now.”

Given the weight of the ongoing crisis in her home nation, it’s understandable that the shockwaves coming from the Middle East initially brought about a creative pause at the start of the year. “I took a little break; I kind of got a little shaken up by everything going on so I wasn’t able to create in the way that I normally could and I wasn’t able to focus,” Lana says. But after some time for reflection, the musician realised that her art is a form of defiance. “I realise now it’s more important than ever to focus on art and to be telling my story,” she nods. “That’s my way of communicating and that’s my purpose.”

There’s a resulting sense of pride and freedom in her latest EP ‘YAFA’: a love letter to home and her Palestinian culture. The EP is a beacon of hope, celebrating the real Palestine and its people. “It’s important to tell the stories of the things that I’ve seen,” she says. “I love the culture, the people, and I want to bring that representation through. I think you do have to tell real stories of people because we’re not numbers. In the news we’re not humanised and art can really humanise people.”

The most direct way Lubany tells those stories is by leaning into her own family heritage. On ‘YAFA’’s meditative and otherworldly title track, she samples an emotive recording of her own late grandmother discussing her home as a dramatic synth swells around it. “It was really important to me to tell her story within mine because obviously they’re very interlinked,” she smiles. “Family is such an important part of my artistry and my life.”

The release also broaches the struggle around her identity. On the haunting and dramatic ballad ‘I WISH I WAS NORMAL’, one of the very few lines in English yearns, “I wish I was born without something to say”. She says the line came from a particularly difficult time. “I was just wishing I was making songs about normal topics like boys or something,” she explains. “I ended up writing that song which is very vulnerable. It definitely helped me through the healing process that I was going through back then.”

Having already proven herself a master when it comes to world-building, Lubany hopes to keep laying more bricks in the new year as she works towards a bigger body of work. “I’m definitely going to be dropping a bunch of music that will hopefully build up to an album at some point, it’s just a matter of being ready,” she says. Moving forward, the mission statement remains firmly the same: “I feel like I need a place to belong but I also want to invite other people into my world. Whether you’re third culture kids or not, whether you’re Arab or not, whether you’re an outsider or not, I want to create a world for people who need that space to be themselves in.”

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