Name
Ruba Saqr

Nickname (and why!)
I have many, it depends on who's talking to me! One is Abul Saqr (used by guys especially when they want to imply I'm one of the guys, heheheh). Another one is Saqoora, which is basically to pet name my surname, usually used among peer journalists. There's Sandcapri, used by family members calling me after one of my email addresses, there's Rabroob, which is my mom's nickname for me, my friends call me Roobs, some call me Ruby to tease me (i hate this one), the very recent one is Um Chocolate (mother of Chocolate, my cat!).

Education
BA in English Literature/Grade 5 piano/Grade 2 Opera Singing/Practical Guitar/Advanced Reiki/Assistant Practitioner NLP

Main instrument played
Voice

Other instruments played
Guitar/Piano

Type of music played
Experimenting with fusions that mix Arabic/eastern genres with western genres like rock, funk, folk, Spanish, jazz, electronic. To be honest with you, I don't like labels, and sometimes it feels like you're putting yourself in a box when you label your music. Music is music, it comes from your soul. Generally, I love jamming.

The band you play with
No band at the moment, going solo!

Tell us about the last gig you played
I played a solo gig in November 2006 in a cultural cafe, in down town Amman. The gig was publicized through SMS and other media picked up on it so it suddenly snowballed into a TV interview offer. The gig was a few days following the day commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks against my country. Since I sang a song for Amman with 2 other female singers the previous year, I was invited to a peak-viewership morning show to talk about my songs, what they are about, and my future plans. This way the gig, the first large-scale solo gig I planned, got maximum exposure. As a result, the gig was attended by more than 400 people who got the cafe overcrowded, followed by excellent exposure in local newspapers, and a lot of fan email. That was the largest solo gig I ever had (usually I play with other musicians) enough to kick start my solo music career.

A few months later, I was interviewed on Freemuse to talk about the challenges Arab musicians (female and male) suffer from in our society, especially if they choose to make music that doesn't conform to mainstream trends.

Tell us what music means to you
Music is my passion, it's my life's mission. It's where I bare my soul naked. Writers write novels to express themselves and to engage in the process of creativity, I sing, jam, experiment, and write songs. Music heals me, I'd explode if I didn't say what my soul needed to say through music. It's my companion throughout my life's journey, my friend, my soulmate.

To me music is not a separate reality, it is where Spirit dwells, it's where we go beyond the mundane into the profound, it's where our soul can dance freely without limitations, boundaries or prejudices.

Tell us about the last album you listened to
Last night I bought and listened to Tootya, an album by Toufic Farroukh. He's Lebanese, I haven't heard of him before, but the music is excellent. I was at the music store in Beirut and they started playing his songs, I instantly went to the counter to ask them about what was playing. It's fresh, new and different.

Which musician do you most admire and why?
I admire Egyptian diva Um Kalthoum, her voice technique and emotion are unparalleled. I also admire Sting for his spirituality and the way his image-powerful songs stay with you. I love U2's Bono for his waterfall-like voice, and I like U2's songs as well as ABBA's. I also like Mercedes Sosa; such a powerful, moving voice. I particularly like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's Kashmir; and a new Arabic rap band from Palestine called DAM, they have powerful resistance songs that use a new language, fuse western rap with Arabic tunes in a brilliant way, and they sing in Arabic and Hebrew.  And of course Beethoven and his Moonlight Sonata remain my No. 1.

Tell us something about yourself that not many people know!
I recently finished training as an advanced Reiki healer (level 3). Not too many people know about this because not too many people know what it is. I started getting into spiritual studies in 2003 after I read Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist. My life was a big mess back then, and I felt I was pushing myself to do what "others" wanted me to do, only to discover that the "other" is part of us, and that we are truly the masters of our destiny, what we believe is who we are, and if we give our power to others then that's how it's going to be, but if we decide to change ourselves, we can change our lives. My mother's family are Sufis, so I decided to pursue eastern mystical practice that was similar to Sufism, until I got to practice yoga, meditation and Reiki.