Waed Bouhassoun

Syrian singer and oud player, born in 1979 in Shaqqa, a Druze village near As-Suwayda in the south of Syria, and living in Paris. She sings classical and mystical Arabic poetry with a low alto voice and her own oud, in arrangements stripped back far enough to leave the words standing.

She trained at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus. Her records include A Voice for Love (2008), L'âme du luth (2014) and Safar: les âmes retrouvées (2019). She is a founding instructor of Orpheus XXI, the project that gives refugee musicians work teaching their own traditions, and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2018. She performs at festivals of sacred and Eastern music across the world.