Dahlia Nemlich, daydreamer

She writes, composes and performs ballads in English between dreamlike and impressionistic… Pieces related to memory, feelings and deep perceptions that go well with her melodious voice with a velvety texture. A sweet voice which, resting on a few guitar chords, envelops you in softness. And transports you sometimes to the heart of the mother-daughter bond in Mother, sometimes in the preserved freshness of childhood in Kid, sometimes also in a kind of sorority against the abuse of certain masculine attitudes in Idak… Or again and above all in a moving ode to the Lebanese capital in Beirut. This flagship title that Dahlia Nemlich, alias Dahlia on the Run, composed in 2018 a few months before the outbreak of the crisis. And in which this Lebanese-French, who has lived abroad for a long time, expressed the strange, ambivalent feelings, between happiness and anxiety, that she experienced during her reunion with her hometown. A year later, carried by the enthusiasm of the revolt movement of October 17, 2019, the young woman will give new meaning to this first single which she then recorded in the wake of the demonstrations in which she participated. And of which she films some strong moments, some faces illuminated by the hope of a change, in the clip which accompanies it.

The album “Lucid Dreams”, by Dahlia on the Run, has just been released under the BC Records label. Photos DR

This “Beirut” that comes to mind…

Successfully broadcast in 2020 on Anghami, Beirut, which has also garnered thousands of views on YouTube, has been remastered and integrated into her very first album, Lucid Dreams, which she has just released under the BC Records* label. A first opus in which Dahlia Nemlich has brought together eight soothing, comforting melodies, some of which run through your mind for a long time, like fragments of daydreams…

For this long dark vine in her thirties, a career in song has long been a dream both near and far. A desire linked to the idea of ​​personal achievement. And a path punctuated by musical milestones in which she embarked with a mixture of confidence and hesitation.

A decisive roommate…

Because if the young woman with a beautiful voice has always been immersed in music, “with a father who is a director and guitarist in his spare time and a mother who choruses”, it was only at the age of 20, thanks to ” a guitar offered by a musician friend” with whom she shared a student roommate in Paris that Dahlia Nemlich will launch into song. “We spent hours composing little songs and had fun doing covers of the Beatles, Freddy Mercury and variety standards in the first parts of concerts on small stages and Parisian jazz clubs, such as the Three Donkeys or The salty kiss, ”she says. “It’s thanks to her that I learned to play the guitar on my own, relentlessly practicing stringing the strings in order to reproduce the arpeggios of Alela Diane, a native American singer who had a lot of influence on me. Then I finished my film studies at ISCPA and our paths went their separate ways. I devoted myself completely for a few years to my work in the production of series at TF1, in particular, and I returned to Lebanon in 2016, where I joined the production company The Talkies”, she narrates. The writing and composition of the aforementioned Beirut will seal his emotional reconnection with his city. But it is a second meeting, fundamental this one, with Namir Maitala, a young electronic music producer, who has become her fiancé, which will put her on the path to a real musical career.

Between films and songs

“He encouraged me to really get into composing my own repertoire. He gave me the necessary confidence to finalize this very personal project, in which I express myself in a different, more symbolic way than what I do in my short films, which are generally more imbued with a certain social realism”. confides the one who has (co)directed documentaries, including Supporting the Avo Sector (2017), Food in Zahle (2017) as well as Roadblock screened at the el-Gouna Film Festival in 2020.

Dahlia Nemlich, who now wears with equal passion two, even three hats of singer, producer and director, does not intend to stop there. After having recently completed a short fiction film entitled Somewhere in Between (produced by Marine Vaillant and the Egyptian producer, palme d’or at Cannes in 2020 for best short film, Mohammad Taymour), she is currently completing the music video for the song Idak, while embarking on the writing of her first feature film which will focus on the condition of Ethiopian women in Lebanon, she reveals. “These women to whom we grant no identity and no importance in our lives, whereas without them, our lives would not be at all as beautiful and comfortable”, pleads this multidisciplinary artist with a beautiful positive sensitivity. A voice and a way forward…

*Launched in concert on December 22 at Ballroom Blitz, “Lucid Dreams” by Dahlia on the Run is available on all download platforms.