Hanouneh’s expression is rooted in contexts where music is survival rather than entertainment. Her early collaborations with Lebanese DJ Lethal Skillz and hiphop collective 961 Underground introduced her to an Arab audience and set a foundation for her cross-border musical future.
Her debut album Love & War was released in 2011 and attracted attention in the global reggae community, not least in Jamaica where the song “Real Gaza me seh” (feat. Promoe) landed right in the middle of an ongoing dancehall conflict between the Vybz Kartel and Mavado sides. It was followed by a six-track live session EP, recorded with The Awakening Band, where the organic nerve of Hanouneh’s music got to flourish and indicate the band-driven sound that would characterize the years to come.
Hanouneh has initiated and managed several international projects revolving around arts, culture, creative resistance, censorship and freedom of expression. One of them was Tawasul, which engaged activists and artists from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Sweden, and resulted in the recording of a six-track EP as well as in exchanges including joint performance tours in Lebanon and Sweden in 2013.
The following year Hanouneh toured in Palestine with a Swedish live band where they shared stage with the DubKey Movement and several Palestinian artists. Later in 2014 she was invited to play at a music festival in Mali, where music had been banned two years earlier as extremist groups took power over the northern parts. There, she performed with her band The Rolling Rebels and recorded a song about artistic freedom in Manjul’s legendary Humble Ark Studio together with multiinstrumentalist Ahmed Fofana and late n’goni master Issa Bagayogo.
