Lebanon In Lyrics: 12 Times Our Country Has Been Mentioned In Music

The women, the chaos, the heat, the beauty, the nightlife – all common themes in Orientalist descriptions of Lebanon. But did you know that these chart-topping artists included us in their tunes?

1. Lebanese Night – Chris De Burgh

And did you go to your bed with a sweet lullaby,
And the sound of the guns in the night?
And did you dance in the fields,
Did you run for your life,
From the hell that came down from the sky?
On a Lebanese night, on a Lebanese night

2. International Love – Pitbull, Chris Brown

In Lebanon yeah the women the bomb

3. We Didn’t Start The Fire – Billy Joel

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

4. Headache – Rick Ross, French Montana

Closet like fashion week, at Milan
Armour from Lebanese, Lebanon

5. Mika – All She Wants

Got the trophy wife, that’s respectable
To avoid any spectacle
It’s another simple solution
For my mother’s delusion
Get her some adorable pictures done
For her mother in Lebanon

6. Gypsy Boots – Aerosmith

High school lover with ya cops undercover and gettin’ high, drank Lebanese

7. Leaving Beirut – Roger Waters

I wonder what became of them
In the cauldron that was Lebanon
If I could find them now, could I make amends?
How does the story end?

8. Born This Way – Lady Gaga

Don’t be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you’re broke or evergreen
You’re black, white, beige, Chola descent
You’re Lebanese, you’re orient

9. Battle Ship – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Three miles off the coast of Beirut
New Jersey’s guns get ready to shoot

10. Eyes Like Yours – Shakira

Came from Bahrain
Got to Beirut
Looking for someone
Comparing to you

11. Honeymoon In Beirut – Rick Springfield

Honeymoon In Beirut
Although I keep on sending postcards
From heaven

12. Happy Song – Robbie Williams

This is a Happy Song
Play on my pink flute
But make it through Beirut
‘Cause this is a happy song

Reader submissions:

13. The Cedars Of Lebanon – U2

Now I got a head like a lit cigarette
Unholy clouds reflect in a minaret
So high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the cedars of Lebanon?

14. Of Rage And War – Savatage

War broods in foreign lands
Missiles launch upon command
Islam Lebanon what the hell is going on
Ambassadors who say they try
Negotiating suicide
Are they prepared to face the end
Of rage and war

15. The Lebanon – The Human League

And who will have won
When the soldiers have gone
From the Lebanon
The Lebanon

16. Square Dance – Eminem

Oh yeah don’t think I won’t go there, go to Beirut and do a show there