Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer/songwriter who has been paving her own pat… Read Full Bio ↴Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer/songwriter who has been paving her own path in the Arabic underground musical scene since 1990. Her voice is wise and true, a soft mix between the traditional Arabic music she was raised on and the western sounds she chose to follow. She writes about the daily worries of a troubled society, of love and hate and what’s in between. Her music follows the rhythm of her daily life and mirrors her changing mood, creating a boiling pot of tunes, feelings and love for innovation.
Tania graduated from La Sorbonne, Paris in 1992 and has been working in the creative industry since then.
She was an illustrator, a backing vocalist and an actress in famous Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani’s musical and theatrical work between 1993 and 1996.
In 2002, she released her first album, "Tania Saleh" with Lebanese music veteran Issam Hajj Ali and music producer/sound engineer Philippe Tohme. In the meantime, she wrote the lyrics to “Mreyte Ya Mreyte”, the title song in Nadine Labaki’s first feature film "Caramel", composed by Khaled Mouzannar and lyrics to Natasha Atlas’ song “Communicate”.
In 2009, she shot the music video "Ya Wled", a critical ode to all Lebanese politicians prior to the parliamentary elections. She also released the single "Slow Down” to commemorate her first trip to the U.S.A., hosted by music producer Miles Copeland who chose her as one of the main Arab artists portrayed in the PBS-produced musical documentary entitled “Dissonance and Harmony/Arab Music Goes West”. The documentary was preceded by a 5-day musical workshop uniting American and Arab artists at SIR studios in Los Angeles. The musical documentary was directed by Jon Brandeis and aired on PBS, BBC and Al Jazeera.
She performed live in various cities of the world including Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
In 2010, she was featured on Al Jazeera in one of a series of documentaries by musician and documentary filmmaker Fermin Muguruza who painted a 'soundscape' of the modern Arab music scene.
In 2011, she released her second studio album (co-produced by Philippe Tohme) and a music video entitled "Wehde” released on Youtube. The album immediately became number 1 on the TOP 10 list of best selling albums at Virgin Megastore, Beirut.
She also wrote the lyrics and coached the singers in Khaled Mouzannar’s soundtrack for Nadine Labaki’s second feature film "Where Do We Go Now?”, released worldwide in September 2011. The film soundtrack was also number 1 on the TOP 10 list of best selling albums at Virgin Megastore, Beirut. It won “Best Music Award” in Stockholm International Film Festival in November 2011.
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يا ليل يا عين
Tania Saleh Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

ثقافتنا فرنساوية
سيجارتنا امريكية
والقهوة برازيلية آه يا ليل يا عين
سألونا عالهوية
وحروف الابجدية
ما بقى نعرف شو هي اه ياليل ياعين
ثقافتنا فرنساوية
سيجارتنا امريكية

والكفته حلبية اه ياليل ياعين
ما بقى نعرف امبارح
اذا جاى او رايح
ولا بكره من عشى
رزق الله ع اللى جانا
ع العتوه والروزانا
رزق الله ع هوانا
آه ياليل
آه ياليل يا عين يا ليلى يا عين

رزق الله ع اللى جانا
ع العتوه والروزانا

رزق الله ع هوانا
آه ياليل

Overall Meaning

Tania Saleh's song "يا ليل يا عين" talks about the confusion and loss of identity faced by the younger generation in Lebanon, who struggle to hold on to their culture and traditions in the face of globalization and foreign influences. The lyrics refer to the French culture that has influenced Lebanon, the American cigarettes that people smoke, and the Brazilian coffee that people drink, highlighting the lack of connection to their own heritage. The song also speaks of the confusion around identity, with people unable to identify themselves, even in terms of the alphabet used in their language. The chorus of the song talks about the uncertainty of the future and the difficulties of knowing what tomorrow will bring.

The song expresses the longing for a deeper connection to the past, the present, and the future. The repeated phrase "آه ياليل يا عين" expresses the longing and the sorrow that come from feeling disconnected and lost. The song is a call to action for young people to look inward and find their own identities, to rediscover their culture, and to embrace it with pride and love.

Overall, "يا ليل يا عين" is a powerful commentary on the changing face of Lebanon, the loss of cultural identity, and the struggle to hold on to those things that make us who we are.

Line by Line Meaning

ثقافتنا فرنساوية
Our culture is heavily influenced by French culture

سيجارتنا امريكية
We smoke American cigarettes

والقهوة برازيلية آه يا ليل يا عين
Our coffee is from Brazil, oh night, oh eye

سألونا عالهوية
They asked us about our identity

وحروف الابجدية
And the letters of the alphabet

ما بقى نعرف شو هي اه ياليل ياعين
We don't even know what they are anymore, oh night, oh eye

والكفته حلبية اه ياليل ياعين
Our meat is from Aleppo, oh night, oh eye

ما بقى نعرف امبارح
We don't even know yesterday anymore

اذا جاى او رايح
Whether we're coming or going

ولا بكره من عشى
And we don't even know what tomorrow will bring

رزق الله ع اللى جانا
God provided for us