Palestinian-Jordanian artist Zeyne delivers her most personal and potent project with debut album AWDA. She talks finding her voice, searching for hope, and pushing her boundaries.

Only emerging a few years ago, Palestinian-Jordanian singer-songwriter looks set to be a significant player in the continually rising MENA scene for years to come. Her all new debut album, AWDA, from Scarab Records via MDLBEAST Records, follows the success of her COLORS show and viral single “asli ana”, and further cements her position as a defiant and daring global presence.

The record sonically is a slick and immersive crossover between traditional sounds with a modern pop core and an R&B edge. It’s thrilling, cinematic, and deeply impactful, exploring cultural identity and generational love – topics that are now more important than ever. 

A thematically profound and deftly delivered album, it’s an excellent inaugural full-length from Zeyne. Dropping by Wonderland, she talks about finding herself within music, using her platform positively, and the making of the new record. 

Listen to AWDA…

Read the interview…

Hey Zeyne! How are you? How was your summer?

I’m good, thank you for asking! This summer was intense for sure, but also really grounding for me. I spent a lot of time between the studio and home, and that balance was important because the album process can feel really hectic at times.

Talk us through your musical origins – how did you find your talent? How did it grow?

I was raised in a really musical household. My mom sings, my Teta sings, and when my dad travelled he’d always bring back CDs for me, so music was around me from the very beginning. My eldest sister played piano and I’d watch her, and then one of my teachers at school heard me sing and told my mom she should nurture my voice. By the age of nine I was already singing at home with my family and I asked my mom for lessons. I started with classical training, even opera, and then kept exploring with different teachers and styles until I naturally grew into the kind of music I make today.

I was also in a dabkeh group since I was five, so Palestinian folklore was ingrained in me really early on. Those songs have never left me and they come out so organically in the music I make now. Later, when I went to uni in the UK and lost my job during Covid, I started posting covers online. That opened doors for me, and eventually led me to the team I work with now. They’ve taught most of what I know about creative production, writing, and the recording process, and that’s really where I began to shape myself as an artist.

How would you describe the core essence of your sound and approach? What do you think makes you stand out?

I think the core of my sound and my approach is really about honesty and expression, as a balance between emotion and clarity. I want my music to carry feeling first, whether that comes through the lyrics or the textures around it. At the same time, I also like to keep enough space where the music can pull you in, but allow people to relate to it in their own ways. 

I’m not sure if it’s really about what makes me stand out as much as it is about what makes me me. My music carries pieces of how I grew up, the sounds I was surrounded by, and the way I process the world. I don’t force a certain identity onto it or treat my cultural influences as something to add on top, they’re just part of how I hear and express music. So even when the production shifts or I explore something new, it’s still rooted in that.

You are adept at combining traditional elements from your cultural lineage with a pop-centric sound. How important is it to celebrate your roots within your music?

It’s really important to me, but it’s not something I approach in a calculated way. It’s more natural than that, like I mentioned earlier, it’s in the way I sing, the melodies I gravitate towards, the language I use. Growing up, those sounds were always around me, so they’re just part of who I am. I think celebrating my roots through music isn’t about putting tradition on display, it’s about letting it live in a way that feels current and personal. It’s my way of honouring where I come from while also pushing forward into newer spaces.

How do you transform the darkness of these current times as light within your own music?

At the moment, with Palestine, it doesn’t feel right to talk about light in the face of what’s happening. Watching a genocide unfold in front of us, I don’t think there’s a way to rationalise it or frame it as anything other than devastating. What I can do, and feels like the least I can do, is to make sure it lives in my work and in the platforms I have access to. For me, that’s not about trying to turn something so dark into light, but rather about speaking on it with honesty and responsibility. The music becomes a place to carry that grief and anger, to refuse silence, and to honour our culture and our people. If there is light in that, it’s in the act of remembering, resisting, and insisting on our presence. 

Congratulations on your new album! How are you feeling about the release?

Thank you! With AWDA, it feels different to anything I’ve done before because the word itself, meaning return, holds so much weight for me. This album has been about coming back to myself, to my roots, to the things I sometimes felt far away from. Finally releasing it feels like I’m sharing that journey, not just the songs. It’s emotional because it’s so tied to who I am, but also empowering because it’s a statement of my presence and my story. So I feel nervous, of course, but mostly proud and so grateful that AWDA is on its way out in the world.

What inspired you to begin work on it, your debut? 

I think the inspiration came from a need, more than an idea. I’d been writing and releasing singles, but I felt there was a bigger story I wanted to tell that couldn’t fit into just one track. AWDA came from the urge to create a body of work that felt like a place where all the different parts of me could live together. It was inspired by memory and experience, by my roots, and by everything I’ve carried with me up to this point. In a way, I didn’t set out to make an album but it found me when I realised I had to put it all in one space. 

What’s the meaning behind the album’s name, AWDA? 

AWDA translates to “return,” and I chose it because it felt like the simplest way to capture everything the project represents. For me, return isn’t just about going back to a place, it’s emotional, even spiritual in the way you reconnect with the parts of yourself and your history that you don’t want to lose. This album became that space for me. It’s a return to language, to memory, to stories that have shaped me, and to the sounds that feel like home.

It also carries a collective meaning as Palestinians, because the idea of return is something we hold deeply, whether it’s through culture, family, or the dream of going back to a land many of us have been separated from. Naming the album AWDA gave the project that weight and honesty. And it felt right to keep the title in Arabic, because it doesn’t need translation or explanation since it stands on its own, rooted in where it comes from. That was important to me.

What influenced the sonic direction of the work?

A lot of it came from instinct and from following what felt natural rather than setting strict rules for how it should sound. I was listening to a lot of alternative R&B and going back to the Palestinian folklore songs I grew up with from my time in a dabkeh troupe. At the same time, I found myself drawn to artists like Frank Ocean, Ziad Rahbani, Dalida, and Sade. The mix of those worlds started to shape the sound. I wanted the production to feel open but still rich, still powerful that could carry intimacy in the vocals while giving room for the influences to come through. In a way, the sonic direction was influenced less by one genre and more by the push and pull between where I come from and where I want to go.

What are the key themes of the album?

AWDA covers a lot of ground and I don’t wanna give you too many details before you can dive into it yourself. What I will say is that there are themes of love and heartbreak, identity and reclamation, belonging, and others that deal with memory and how the past stays with you. I dont wanna give too many spoilers, especially when the songs tell the story better than I ever could. You’ll see what I mean when you hear it.

What does the album mean to you? What do you hope it achieves?

For me, AWDA is a milestone, and not because its my debut album, but It’s the first time I’ve been able to put all these different parts of myself into one complete story. It feels like a home I can always return to, no matter where I go next. And I hope it achieves connection where people can listen and find pieces of themselves in the songs, or for it to spark conversation about identity and where we come from, if that’s achieved then it’s done its job. I don’t think music has to give answers, but I do hope it makes people feel seen and understood.

Aside from the project, what’s to come from you, this year and beyond?

I can’t give too much away just yet, but I will say that taking AWDA on tour is something I’m really excited about. There are a few surprises lined up and I’m excited for people to see different sides of me as an artist. For now, I’ll let the music do the talking… but stay tuned.