Yasmine Hamdan releases ‘Hon’ reflecting on Beirut port explosion and its aftermath

Lebanese artist Yasmine Hamdan has released her latest single, ‘Hon’, a deeply personal track shaped by the emotional aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Reflecting on the moment that deeply marked the track, she recalls: “It’s August 4th, 2020 at 6:08 PM, and I’m sitting in my apartment in Paris when I receive a call from my sister, one minute after the Beirut port explosion. In a few seconds, Beirut became smoke and haze. I was far, and I felt completely crushed.”

Written in collaboration with Palestinian poet Anas Alaili, ‘Hon’ captures a sense of displacement and fracture, as the artist describes: “The lyrics emerged from this experience, an incapacity to distinguish between here and there.” The composition, created alongside longtime collaborator Marc Collin, carries a weight that extends beyond its initial moment of inspiration. “I wrote the lyrics of ‘Hon’ after August 4th, yet it seems inseparable from what we have been experiencing for the last year and a half,” she notes. With its haunting soundscapes and introspective lyricism, ‘Hon’ stands as a sonic meditation on memory, identity and a city long marked by tragedy. The artist encapsulates the emotional gravity of the piece in a single phrase: “A tiny land with a gaping wound.”

Yasmine Hamdan's latest single ‘Hon’ is now available on all major streaming platforms.