Meet Two Local Artists: Michelle And Noel Keserwany
Introducing Michelle and Noël Keserwany: Michelle is the author of the famous “Jagal el Usek“, and both she and her sister have written and sung songs like “3al Jamal bi Wasat Beirut“, “Zafatle el Tari2“, and “Panique bel Parlement“.
They highly believe in humor and tackle most of their songs from that aspect. Michelle and Noël have one common dream: the both aspire to leave their footprints in this world. They have so much positive energy and hope that you cannot remain pessimistic after spending few minutes around them.
image via 2famous.tv
Michelle and Noël are artists and they decided to put their art at the use of social awareness. They also work separately on scrip writing, realization of awareness campaigns and on illustration. They believe in causes, and thus, made their causes the essence of their art work. The first time I saw them on stage was at one of Beirut Madinati’s events and the only thing I could think of was: “I may be leaving Lebanon for good, but I know this country is in safe hands”.
The first song that Michelle released was Jagal el Usek which caricatured some of the typical guys at her university. A little later, they released Panique bel Parlement, Michelle and Noël imagine how MPs would react if what usually happens to us happened to them inside the parliament. From electricity cuts to water floods, including internet cuts, they describe a whole scene in which all MPs are losing their minds.
In addition to that they also wrote and filmed 3al Jamal bi Wasat Beirut for which they actually brought two camels from Baalbek in order to ride them in Beirut’s Down Town. The idea behind this song was to protest against the expensive transportation means in Beirut, the lack of public transportation, and to depict the strong social discrimination present in our country.
She explains how they ended up being asked to leave Down Town, “It was very funny to see how people reacted. I stopped next to a shop and asked the shop assistant to show me a watch and he was very surprised. It’s because I appeared to them that I don’t have the money to buy a car, they did not perceive me as a serious client, or let alone a citizen”.
Following that, they released Zafatle el Tari2 which criticizes the blind support we, as Lebanese, give to our political leaders.
Most lately, Michelle and Noël have released a song in collaboration with LAU students and ISAW, it’s called In My Hand. It aims to empower and motivate women to change their situation themselves. It also spreads awareness, as they tackle and explain some of the laws that do not give women their full rights.
Michelle and Noël are working on some new songs as they will hopefully be going on a tour probably sometime soon. They are preparing a new concert with the help of Zeid Hamdan and are currently recording the new songs.
In the closer future, they are going to release a song called Cinderella about empowering women. It tells the story of a young girl to whom her grandma is reading fairy tails. However, she never understood what happened to all these princesses after they got married to a prince. Her grandma would simply say “they lived happily ever after”. The answer was not convincing and she, therefore, decides to continue writing them after the princesses get married.
Separately, Michelle is currently working on script writing and illustration as a free lancer and she recently finished co-writing Nadine Labaky’s latest film, Capharnaum. As for Noël, she is currently working as a creative director, making awareness campaigns about social causes as well as an illustrator doing animations.
image via youtube.com
Michelle and Noël sing about our daily lives. They sing about injustice. They sing about those who remain voiceless. All of us Lebanese, can relate to their songs. They sing for no political party, but against all the political corruption. “We talk about things that really happen, mere reality. We sing about it instead of nagging”, told me Noël. She also said that the most beautiful comment they usually receive about their work is “fashaytoulna khele2na“, and she adds: “It’s amazing to see that you have something in common with them, because that creates a connection”.
