Maya Youssef is releasing her second album Finding Home this Friday (25th March). The album was written during a period of spiritual awakening. A journey through the singer and composer’s memories and the essence of home, both within and without. The music – deep and visceral, exploring the full sonic textures of the qanun (the 78-stringed middle eastern equivalents of a piano)
Today, we are debuting the video ‘My Homeland’ below, lifted from the album. A hugely poignant and haunting song this lament is layered with runs of the evocative qanun and entwined keyboard notes. It reflects on Maya’s own loss of homeland due to the crisis in Syria, something echoed in world events today.
“As any Syrian will tell you, there is this overwhelming sense of loss and grief for loved ones and places; the world which existed before the war, despite it naturally having problems, was a beautiful world. With a booming economy, artistic scene, film festivals and visiting international artists, there was such a sense of artistic expansion and goodness. The above-mentioned loss was heart-wrenching and with Maya’s latest album she wanted to take people through a transformative journey, where they land in that place of home for them. No matter what that means to each person.”
Maya is an incredible advocate for welcoming new refugees to the UK and this forms an integral part of her upcoming work in the UK linked to her new album Finding Home, involving work in schools, meeting new refugee families and getting them involved in events celebrating their music and sharing her own. Her new album is a melding of classical Arabic tunes in Maya’s distinctive style with collaborations with the British Museum, BBC Radio 3, Opera North and the Wiltshire Music Centre.
Maya is recognised as a rising star with awards from Songlines and BBC Music Magazine.,
