On his debut album ›Monologue‹, released in 2019, Syrian singer-songwriter Yousef Kekhia questions the material and idealistic appropriation of reality. »Hal Ard Lamin?« (»Whom Does This World Belong To?«), he asks in the song of the same name: a powerful yet vulnerable manifesto against mental and physical boundaries that the artist has been exposed to throughout his life and that have been hindering his potentials. Hope and depression, love and disappointment, illness and last but not least the existence as a refugee are what form the basis of Yousef Kekhia’s ›Monologue‹. Displaced from Aleppo in 2013 by the circumstances that followed the revolution in Syria, Yousef Kekhia has worked with refugees in both Syria and Turkey as songwriter and activist giving a voice to those who are talked about so much but hardly ever listened to. On ›Monologue,‹ he combines contemporary folk music and electronic sound elements with Arabic lyrics to share his personal challenges aloud in a seemingly schizophrenic act. His ›Monologue‹ becomes a dialogue and renders a plurality of voices tangible.
For 2020, Yousef Kekhia is receiving a grant in the amount of 3,500 euros to work on his upcoming EP.