Nummergegevens
| Artiest | Siba |
| Nummer | Dounana |
| Jaar van uitgave | 2024 |
Beoordeling
Normaal geproken besteed ik weinig aandacht aan virale trends, maar eind april werd ik via sociale media gewezen op het nummer Dounana, waarvan de video werd gedeeld. De Engelse vertaling maakte indruk, evenals de uitvoering.
Het nummer bleek afkomstig van de Syrische artieste Siba, die woonachtig is in Berlijn. Ze schreef het nummer zelf en nam het vervolgens op, waarbij Monkyman de productie verzorgde. Het nummer werd oorspronkelijk uitgebracht op 11 januari 2024, en de bijbehorende (zwart-wit) video, bekostigd door vrienden, kennissen en gelijkgestemden, werd op 9 november 2024 beschikbaar gesteld via online streaming diensten.
Om het nummer nog een keer extra onder de aandacht te brengen postte Siba op 15 april 2026 via haar Instagram account @sibasmusic de volgende tekst, inclusief een verwijzing naar de Dounana video.
Siba – Instagram 15-04-2026
En deze keer werd de video opgepikt door veel, heel veel, mensen. De media gingen ermee aan de haal en het nummer werd onderdeel van de algoritmes, waardoor het ook op mijn tijdlijn terecht kwam. Ik was nieuwsgierig en luisterde, én las (!), en was onder de indruk. De video met de Engelse ondertiteling is prachtig, simpel en doeltreffend.
In het nummer rapt een vrouw (Siba) in het Arabisch, Ze is boos en laat dat merken. In niet mis te verstane bewoordingen wordt uiting gegeven aan de gevolgen van het (Westerse) imperialisme, dat veel van de Arabische wereld met haast niet op te lossen problemen heeft opgezadeld. De directe aanleiding van het nummer is de oorlog in Gaza, maar is helaas net zo toepasbaar op de Syrische burgeroorlog of de onlangs door Trump gestarte Iran oorlog.
Siba – Dounana
Tekst
Het nummer is feitelijk een gedicht geschreven door Siba. Hieronder wordt de Engelse vertaling weergegeven. Voor de volledigheid is de Arabische tekst ook opgenomen.
Dounana
Eradicate our roots
Demolish our homes
Criminalise our existence
Falsify our origins
Separate our loved ones
And Slaughter our children
Take our blood for granted
And demonise our revolutionaries
Steal our knowledge
Keep our people oblivious
And torture our spirits
And denounce us our rights
Colonise our countries
And appoint our rulers
Appropriate our goods
And burn down our trees
Bomb our roofs
Make us out as liars
And watch our pains
And belittle our agony
Ignore our tears
And close our eyes
Mutilate our faces
And deny our feelings
Destroy our dreams
objectify our bodies
And darken our skies
And kill our peace
We will keep standing still
And our love stands in us
But who would you be without us
You would not be without us
You will not be without us© 2024 Siba
Interviews
Naar aanleidng van het plotselinge succes werd Siba een aantal maal geinterviewed. Deze zijn hieronder, op schrift, beschikbaar.
The New Arab Siba interview 29-04-2026
The New Arab, 29-04-2026
#Dounana, an Arabic anthem fueled by resistance and a critique of Western supremacy, has taken the digital world by storm.
The New Arab sat down for an exclusive interview with the voice behind the viral hit, Syrian singer @sibasmusic.
How ‘Dounana’ became a viral anthem of outrage
It went viral overnight. Totally unexpected. I was very shocked. I was thankful that the song reached so far and beyond, and even reached people who hated it, because maybe they are exactly the people who should listen to it and feel these feelings also.
‘Dounana’ the poem was written almost two years ago. We had been witnessing a genocide unfold on our screens daily. The community started to lose hope in humanity. And meanwhile German media was completely failing to stay fair and to report with integrity, pushing a propaganda agenda of a government that is not even theirs. At the same time the German government trying everything in its power to suppress our voices, to intimidate us into silence.
Of course, as a result of this, what comes is anger. Anger is always there to tell us something is wrong, something is not working like it should be working.
It was overwhelmingly positive. The reactions, the messages. People are saying that the anger really resonates with them, really speaks to them, expresses something that they just want to express. Of course there were also negative comments from different groups. There were the people who support a certain agenda, a zionist agenda for exampale, or the people who are racist or anti refugees or whatever it is, you have it in Germany. I got some really awful messages as well and there is also another group of people who have a certain image of women.
I was 6 years old when I wrote my first poem. My musical journey started when I was 13 years old. In Syria I started to learn guitar. The style is an evolution at the end of the day. So it’s not something that came direcly to me that I chose, it’s more something that comes organically with time.
There is an album that’s coming very soon. It’s going to be a little bit different. In a sense it does of course stay true to the values, to the message. It will be four Arabic songs, three English songs.
Even thought it is a very angry message, at the end, in Arabic, it says [Arabic text]. It’s a message of: ‘we will still love, this is what will win in the end.’
© The New Arab 29-04-2026
Scene Noise Siba interview 02-05-2026
Scene Noise, 02-05-2026
It is a rare and satisfying thing for something to go viral for the right reasons. Last week, amidst the usual doom and gloom, the Instagram algorithm caught wind of a post by Syrian artist Siba commemorating the eighteen-month anniversary of her track, ‘Dounana’, produced by Monkyman. Almost instantly, the song spread like wildfire.
The sudden resurgence comes as no surprise. Siba’s raw rage and unflinching lyrics provide a cathartic experience that many in the Arab world have yearned for after witnessing over two years of the genocide in Gaza.
When asked about her headspace while writing the track, Siba simply replies, “Nothing.” The artist explains that she merely stepped out of the way of her own emotions, allowing the pen to hit the paper with no intellectual filter in between.
While deeply personal, the message of ‘Dounana’ is also expansive. Siba notes that the track is dedicated to all colonized people who have seen their cultures and societies suppressed, broadening its resonance to a global audience bound by a shared history of struggle.
Hi SceneNoise, I’m Siba, and I’m here today to tell you a little bit of the creation of the song ‘Dounana’.
‘Dounana’ was released one and a half years ago, and has been gaining some attention recently. And the poem was written about two years ago. At that time we had already been witnessing a genocide unfold on our screens, for the past months. We were starting to lose hope in humanity, we were being brutalized, silenced, oppressed when trying to speak about the truth. And what comes after this is anger. And the anger was as big as the injustice was.
I was sitting in my living room containing all of these huge emotions that had absolutely no other way to be expressed but this poem. And I really just started writing, there was no room for thinking, or the brain or logic, anything. I was just words being spilled out of the heart.
‘Dounana’ is about colonialism and post-colonial structures and the mass of destruction they bring to cultures, eco and socio-systems of indigenous people all over the world. And the pain is global. It’s shared. It’s enormous. And I am just incredibly honored and grateful that many people resonated with this message, and many people felt heard and seen by the anger, and for that I just want to say thank you.
© Scene Noise 02-05-2026
Siba video opnamen voor Dounana
Credits
- Siba – instrumenten, rap en compositie
- Monkyman – productie
PARAZEITGEIST
Binnenkort zal Siba haar debuutalbum, PARAZEITGEIST, uitbrengen:
Siba – Instagram 16-03-2026
Video/Spotify
Bij dit verhaal is een video opgenomen. Klik op de volgende link om deze te zien: Video: Siba gaat viraal – Dounana. De A Pop Life afspeellijst op Spotify is ook aangepast.
