Methal

Methal Hamadi, performing under the name Methal, works as a Yemeni singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose decision to enter music was sparked by the Arab Spring in 2011. Establishing herself as a woman in the arts within Yemen’s conservative Arabic society placed her on a challenging route, where ordinary creative acts were interpreted as defiance. She wrote material on instruments obtained through discreet mail orders and confronted substantial topics of religions and social justice within a conversational acoustic folk-pop style, which drew death threats. In 2017 she joined the audiovisual collaboration I’m with the Banned to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries that encompassed Yemen. The project took her to Canada for work with American rock band X Ambassadors, resulting in the single “Cycles” that appeared that summer. The visibility from this effort led to the release of her self-titled debut EP the same year.