Banna was born in Nazareth, where she graduated from Nazareth Baptist School. She lived in Nazareth with her three children.
She died on 24 March 2018, aged 51, in a hospital in her hometown of Nazareth, Palestine following a lengthy and brave battle with breast cancer, which she openly shared with her numerous fans through social media. She met her husband, Ukrainian guitarist Leonid Alexeyenko, while studying music together at the Higher Music Conservatory in Moscow and they married in 1991, and divorced in 2010.
Banna first achieved popularity in the early 1990s, after recording her own versions of traditional Palestinian children's songs that were on the verge of being forgotten.
Banna also composed her own songs and set Palestinian poetry to music. Her message is often focused on the suffering of Palestinians. Her music is described as "haunting, emotional, at times bordering on kitsch." She described her music as a means of cultural self-assertion:
A part of our work consists of collecting traditional Palestinian texts without melodies. So that the texts do not get lost, we try to compose melodies for them that are modern, yet inspired by traditional Palestinian music.
In this way, Banna does more than mimic the traditional techniques and representations of the pieces she interprets. She blends them with modern singing styles because,
Oriental singing techniques are mostly ornamental… But my voice is more two-dimensional, thicker. I try to write songs that fit my voice. I want to create something new in every respect. And that includes bringing people elsewhere closer to the music and soul of the Palestinians.
She performed live in the West Bank and she reached audiences in Gaza through live webcasts. She performed her first concert in Syria on 8 January 2009 and also performed in Tunisia on 25 July 2011. Her first concert in Beirut took place on 22 March 2012.
Banna's popularity in Europe began after Norwegian music producer Erik Hillestad invited her to participate on the CD Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2003) and Norwegian singer Kari Bremnes, who also took part on this production in a duet with Rim Banna, invited her to Oslo. Banna accepted the invitation, and the two artists did a show together.
The album, dubbed "a musical antiwar message to U.S. President Bush from female singers in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, and Norway," brings these women together with others from North Korea, Syria, Cuba, and Afghanistan, to sing traditional lullabies from their lands in duet form with English-language performers whose translation allows the songs to reach a Western audience.
The Mirrors of My Soul, which was dedicated to all the Palestinian and Arab political detainees in the Israeli prisons, is a stylistic departure from her previous body of work. Produced in cooperation with a Norwegean quintet, it features "Western pop styling" fused with Middle Eastern modal and vocal structures, and Arabic lyrics.
Although the style differs from previous recordings, the subject matter has basically remained constant. The album includes "songs of despair and hope" about the lives of "a struggling people, and even a song about late Palestinian leader and PA president Arafat in a way that is both thoughtful and subtle".
Discography
Jafra (1985)
Your tears Mother (1986)
The Dream (1993)
New Moon (1995)
Mukaghat (1996)
Al Quds Everlasting (2002)
Krybberom (2003) Rim Banna & SKRUK
Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2003 – Various female artists)
The Mirrors of My Soul (2005, Valley Entertainment)
This was not my story (2006) Rim Banna & Henrik Koitz
Seasons of violet (2007)
Songs across Walls of Separation (2008 – Various artists from the Middle East, Africa, Central America, North America, and Europe)
April Blossoms (2009) an album for children, was dedicated to the children martyrs in Gaza
A Time to cry (2010), was recorded in one of the houses in Sheikh Jarrah under constant threat of eviction from the part of their house (with three Palestinian singers)
"Tomorrow" (Bokra) 2011, a single song of the American legend composer Quincy Jones, who chose Rim Banna to represent Palestine in this project which will be released in an Album and a video clip in September 2011
Revelation of Ecstasy and Rebellion (2013); produced by Bugge Wesseltoft
Songs from a Stolen Spring (2014, Valley Entertainment/Kirkelig Kulturverksted - Various Artists), featuring "Break Your Fears"
Fares Odeh
Rim Banna Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
ستجري بك الغزالة الي جوف جميزة
ستحملك رائحة الخبز والحليب شهيد
الى حضن امك
قالت له النجمة
خذني الى صحن داري
خذني الى فراش نومي
لقد تسلق النعاس اطرافي
خاطب الفتى الغزي ظله
في قلب الام مخابئ لاطفالها
وحزنها في حضن الام وقلبها
للمراة الثكلى
قلب من حليب وزجاج
للأب المفجوع قلب من دمع
يضيء به السراج
The lyrics of Rim Banna's "Fares Odeh" are deeply rooted in poetry and mythological imagery. The opening lines depict a dreamlike scene of a demure fantasy world where butterflies carry a person to the “back of the clouds” and gazelles take them to the heart of Jamisah. This imagery evokes the sense of innocence and purity, and the desire to escape from the harsh realities of life. The next verse shifts from the fantastical to the mundane, describing the scents of bread and milk that are carried to the embrace of a mother that had lost her son in the struggle for freedom.
The lyrics then shift once more to the narration of the mother's experience. The star tells her to bring her to her home where she'll sleep and offer him refuge. She explains how her body is weak from the stress, and she finds it difficult to fall asleep. The boy speaks to his own shadow, revealing how his mother's heart is holding him and his siblings, and how her sadness is within her embrace while his heart is both like glass and made of milk.
In essence, the lyrics express the desire for freedom in a way that is both metaphorical and emotional. It portrays the stark difficulties of daily life amid conflict and loss, and the yearning for a life with joy and freedom.
Line by Line Meaning
ستحملك الفراشات الى ظهر غيمة
Butterflies will carry you to the back of a cloud
ستجري بك الغزالة الي جوف جميزة
Gazelles will run with you to the heart of a meadow
ستحملك رائحة الخبز والحليب شهيد
The scent of bread and milk will carry you as a martyr
الى حضن امك
To the embrace of your mother
قالت له النجمة
The star said to him
خذني الى صحن داري
Take me to the dish of my home
خذني الى فراش نومي
Take me to my bed of sleep
لقد تسلق النعاس اطرافي
Sleepiness has crawled to the tips of my body
وتربع في جوف رأسي
And settled in the depths of my head
خاطب الفتى الغزي ظله
The Gaza boy addressed his shadow
في قلب الام مخابئ لاطفالها
In the heart of a mother are hiding places for her children
وحزنها في حضن الام وقلبها
And her sadness is in the embrace and heart of a mother
للمراة الثكلى
For the grieving woman
قلب من حليب وزجاج
A heart of milk and glass
للأب المفجوع قلب من دمع
For the grieving father, a heart of tears
يضيء به السراج
The lantern is lit by it
Writer(s): Leonid Alexeienko, Majed Abugosh, Rim Banna
Contributed by Jayden C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@hmkyo1247
What ever it is
Power full song
I cant understant it
But can feel it
@waleedjaser
these are the lyrics:
The butterfly will carry you to the back of a cloud
The gazelle will run with you to a hollow of sycamore
The scent of bread and will carry you, a martyr, to the embrace of your mother
The star said to him, "take me to the courtyard of my house"
"Take me to the mattress of my slumber"
Sleepiness climbed up my sides
And sat down in my head
The Gazan boy spoke to his shadow
In the mother's heart is a hiding place for her children and her sadness
In the mother's embrace and her heart
The bereaved mother has a heart of milk and glass
The father who's lost his son has a heart of tears with which he lights the lamp
The song was made in memory of fares oudeh, a Palestinian child and rebellion who was killed by a sniper of the israeli forces for throwing stones on a tank in Aqsa 2nd intifada "uprising"
@amiradarwich8210
Paix à ton âme ' qu Allah fasse de ta dernière demeure son vaste paradis ✌ 🇵🇸
@gadourmahdouani2173
Allah yarhamha
@amrodeh8050
الله يرحمها