Episode 17: “She’s Gonna Do All of That” ft Ghaliaa
Today on Movement, we continue our series of stories about pathbreaking artists in the United Arab Emirates. But this is a story that really could be told anywhere.
Ghaliaa: You hustle and you try to do your best and you put out something for the people that, you know, they're gonna enjoy, but then it just fades. Like, it's just a matter of minutes, honestly. Like I put out a song, I celebrate and I'm like, wait, hang on. Did I, did I do it right? Did I, is everything okay? Is everything on track? Wait, why isn't everyone, why isn't anyone responding? So you need somebody to remind you to be patient and to be grateful and to stop scrolling on social media and comparing yourself and, beating yourself up.
I remember it was very bad to a point where I stopped making music for a while. For like five, six months. Side piece of info, I'm a CrossFitter. I've been doing CrossFit for four years, so I was just, burying myself in the gym and I wouldn't go home. It was like, I was punishing myself. You know, I was exercising for four hours, like nonstop, like a monster. And it felt like I was beating myself up, like, Hey, you deserve this. Like, You're not making music. You're not being productive, stay in the gym. And it was really bad, you know?
Narration: All artists have moments of doubt. When our work feels small or looses its meaning. When we feel like imposters up on a big stage. But that internal doubt is even heavier when it’s echoed by doubt from the outside. From society, from teachers, from family. Doubt that we can be an artist at all.
Ghaliaa: So my name's Ghaliaa, or Ghaliaa. I'm a self-taught musician, producer, composer and a songwriter.I'm Syrian. I was born in Damascus and I was raised in El Ain, which is part of Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Narration: Ghaliaa is only 25 years old, yet some of her videos have been viewed over ten million times, and the music that she makes comes from a place of hard won experience.
Ghaliaa: I started singing at the age of 16, and I decided, you know, this was gonna be my thing forever.
Narration: My name is Meklit and this is Movement: music and migration, remixed.
Meklit: Do you remember the first song that you wrote
Ghaliaa: I do, it's, it wasn't a song. It's a piano composition that I actually played at a piano contest. And this contest the requirements for anyone to get into this contest was you have to have a background on music theory. And I still don't. Right.
But at the time I was so desperate, I actually, I'm not gonna say I snuck in, I kind of did, but don't tell them. I snuck in from the back. And I brought my mom, like, mom, go and sit. Like, your daughter is about to go on stage .
It was a huge ballroom in a hotel. And there's a huge grand piano on stage. And I knew the teacher. And I tapped on her shoulder. I'm like, can I please play my piece? She's like, fine go. I'm like, okay, thank you so they didn't even call my name. I was at the end of the list.
So after the contest has ended, I immediately just ran on stage and I sat on the piano. So like, everybody was like, okay, like just some chick playing around. I put my glasses down. I, as a nerd, I braces on with glasses. I put my glasses down and I started like, I played the first key
I called that piece, the dream. And I just it was my first time sharing anything with the public. This was the moment.
Meklit: How do you explore a song? Like, tell us about what it is to go from like a seed to a full song for you?
Ghaliaa: With me, it always starts with, a beat, because it goes back to the first instrument that my dad brought home, which is the Darbuka, which is an Arabic percussion. And he was obsessed with it. He actually, he was raised in a very poor family. So, according to him, he used to sell those instruments on the streets to make money, to go back home and to provide for his family.
So it always, it always starts with a beat, always starts with a, something like a dmm chk, you know? Always starts with this and then the humming comes in, which is the melody. And then lyrics come when I start sort of activating that process in my head where I'm like, yay, what do we write about now? You know, who are we gonna dis who are we gonna write about?
Meklit: Who are we gonna dis?
Ghaliaa: Yes.
Meklit: Wait, so you have dissing songs?
Ghaliaa: I mean, not literally, but there's a couple songs where I talk about war and the culture and a bunch of people, you know, in one person.
Meklit: So what song was that, that you were just describing?
Ghaliaa: Song is called Naas, which translates to people. And, the song says, everything changes, but you. Everything goes and comes, but you. You stay the way you are. You never change. I was actually talking about my country. I was actually talking about Syria because it's changed so much with the war and with the pain and everything, and people came, and flew and immigrated and all that kind of stuff.
But every time I'd go to Syria, it would, everything would seem the same. The love would be there. It's never, it's never changed really, in the heart of it. You can watch the video and you would really think I was, I'm talking about this one person who's in love with the girl, but it was this person who was in love with his country or her country.
Meklit: I think it was in an interview that I've heard you talk about performing in a hijab
Ghaliaa: Yeah
Meklit: And you mentioned that it was something unusual in the UAE.
Ghaliaa: Yeah
Meklit: Is that the case?
Ghaliaa: Yes. Yes, not just the UAE, it was, I think it was, strange for everybody in the middle east. There's one other hijabi artist out there. Her name is Nedaa Sharara. She's a Jordanian. And she was in The Voice, I think The Voice arabia.
I think I was 17, typical Friday night, and the show, it start at 8:00 PM. And I was there with my parents, and so when Nedaa first got on TV, I was like, cool. You can do that? Like, I was watching it with my parents and I'm like, and they were like in awe, they're like, Ghaliaa, you can do the same. Why don't you do the same?
So, I was in school still and everybody would talk about the show like, Hey, did you guys see that hijabi woman? She, holy shit, like, she sounds like an angel. But morally the story, it was very strange and shocking to the people here. And I'm pretty sure it was across the middle east because this is new Meklit. Like nobody has done this before, you know? Yeah. I mean, you'll find famous tennis players, and famous athletes and famous musicians, but singers I'm pretty sure not.
She really inspired me to do this, what I'm doing right now. Like I never saw myself on TV. Never occurred to me that I can be a, an artist in public and have fans and, you know, travel the world, and sing. And it's, the idea was never there, you know, but when I saw her on TV it's like, the whole world has changed.
Meklit: Is it more kind of more common now for women composers, in the kind of public sphere
Ghaliaa: Yeah.
Meklit: In Abu Dhabi? Like is it, are you part of a community of women composers or do you feel like it's something that's kind of still new.
Ghaliaa: I think, I think we're getting there. It's just a matter of time. It's funny we're talking about this right now, because earlier this morning I was closing a deal with, I'm writing for other artists. Right. And my manager was, you know, discussing how I'm gonna be writing, composing, and producing the song. And the guy was like, oh, she's gonna do all of that?
And my, manager goes, yes, you guys, like you guys knocked at our door. You guys want her to write you a song, right? And he goes, are you sure that she's not working with anyone? Like, are you sure she's executing the project from A to Z in her studio? And man goes like, do you wanna go and check it out?
So I, not gonna lie. I, at that, like in that moment, I felt a bit offended cuz I'm like, you probably wouldn't have asked those questions if it was a guy, you know? It's it just hurts, right? Because you're like, what more should I do? Like what more do you guys want me to do to prove that I can do this, right?
Narration: A couple years ago, Ghaliaa stopped making music altogether. The doubt inside her temporarily became too strong to overcome.
Ghaliaa: Somebody had to sort of turn my face the other direction and I'm glad my sister was there. She found me a coach and you know, start getting back on track.
Meklit: When you said a coach, you mean a Life coach, right?
Ghaliaa: Yes.
Meklit: Yeah. I have one of those.
Ghaliaa: Awesome. Right? There's a video that I posted on TikTok where I like this is, this was my first time getting in the studio and everything was dusty. So I would start a wipe off the dust for my instruments, charge my laptop. Like everything was down, everything the lights were not working. It was like, I abandoned this career, this path.
It was tough Meklit, because I had even forgotten how to produce. Like I'd forgotten the program and the software. My vocals were absolutely crap. So yeah, it was, it was like getting back from rehab.
Meklit: That's a powerful story because I think everybody goes through those moments And it's always important to hear how people come out of it. Because it's like paths that we can take when we get to those places. You know?
Ghaliaa: Yeah
Meklit: I would love to ask you, what are you working on now, musically?
Ghaliaa: I'm working on my second album. And it's been a, it's been a journey, hella journey, writing those songs. It's actually the time where I picked up after the getting lost phase , and getting my head straight and finding that space again, which I had lost.
Narration: Here is the first single from that album. It’s called “Why Lie to Me.”
We’ll be back in two weeks with the last installment of our series on artists in the United Arab Emirates. Special shout out to the entire team at The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, who co-commissioned our live show, and collaborated with us to bring you these UAE based stories. Movement is produced by Ian Coss and myself, Meklit Hadero. Our co-creator and podcast godmother is Julie Caine. Our broadcast partner is The World. We are supported by The Mellon Foundation, The National Geographic Society, and distributed by PRX.