Naima Shalhoub
Oakland, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF
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Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
If there's one thing about Naima it's that she's got soul. From soft sultry scatting to strikingly powerful depth, Naima is already moving and shaking listeners from the United States to Lebanon. With a love for soul, Arabic standards, blues and roots music, Naima's musical style and presence keeps audiences on their toes as she flows between old and new worlds.
Listening to Naima is like taking a journey, picking up fragrances and accents along the way--waking up to the sweet smell of cardamon from a pot of Arabic coffee, moving to the urban rhythms from Oakland to Beirut, and lounging at a smoky blues bar talking about revolution. Her voice is at once a playful lullaby that soothes heartache, and a captivating storm that energizes and inspires.
Her poignant lyrics emerge from a life of straddling cultural and national borders as an Arab-American born in the United States with familial roots in Lebanon and Sierra Leone. Naima studied postcolonial anthropology focusing on gendered violence, women's rights and racial justice. She continues to do advocacy such as her past work including volunteering in refugee camps in Lebanon, organic farms in Costa Rica, and community organizing in San Francisco as a current member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
Naima started performing solo in 2010 in San Francisco and now is based in Oakland performing all over the Bay with her full genre busting band. She hopes her music will inspire change, freedom and love.
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