Written by: Jibril Ali

Beirut—“The Impossible City”— is both difficult and easy to describe.

It has survived war, terror and political uncertainty for decades, and its identity is scattered among the people who choose to leave it, and those who cannot help but come back to it. Perhaps for this reason alone Beirut is best reflected in the faces of Mashrou’ Leila, an indie rock band formed in 2008. Amidst their dreamy, trance-rhythm and romantic lyrics, one can also expect to find fierce advocacy and dissent.

The Lebanese band is known for addressing subjects that “traditional Arab” societies aren't comfortable with. Mashrou’ Leila touches on LGBT rights, misogyny, classism, and violence in their music. With the band’s vocalist, Hamed Sinno, being openly gay and outspoken about his experiences, he and his bandmates have been the subject of hateful and defamatory vitriol in an attempt to stifle their work since their humble beginnings. Undoubtedly, controversy surrounding the group has brought them a kind of publicity they did not expect--though Sinno rejected the idea of using controversy to gain fame in an interview with the Guardian. Despite the imminent danger they face, the band’s latest album Ibn El Leil doesn’t shy away from their longstanding message.

When discussing “Shim el Yasmine,” a song about the breakup with his boyfriend, Sinno once said in an interview he expected “a tomato or gunshot or something” whenever performing the song. The song introduces the dilemma of Sinno's relationship with another man, and utilizes the masculine pronouns in Arabic, almost defiantly, to express his grief of a relationship that could have been.