From Falastin to the world! How artist Elyanna is bringing her cultural sounds to the global stage

Words and interview by Sunayah Arshad, edited by Larena Amin

Taking shelter backstage from the chaos of Coachella, I managed to catch the beautiful Elyanna shortly after she graced the stage for her second performance. 

Elyanna is an early career phenomenon, at only 21 years old the Palestinian-Chilean singer is already shaking up the industry. Her week one performance at the notorious festival drew global attention as she became the first artist to perform a full set in the Arabic language. Not only this, but she was also the first Palestinian to ever perform there. A momentous milestone for the Arab and West Asian community. 

Elyanna, who’s real name is Elian Marjieh, was raised by a family of culturally-rich creatives, so it's no surprise that music was an integral part of her trajectory. Her grandfather was a singer, Zajal poet - a traditional form of oral poetry - and talented writer who passed his skills on to Elyanna’s mother. “My brother is a pianist and I remember his teacher always coming to teach him and I would just sit next to them and listen”. Elyanna credits her brother Feras as the one who discovered her talent when she was just seven years old living in Nazareth, Palestine. 

Growing up, Elyanna’s family always encouraged her passion, with her mother even assisting her in writing music. Just seven years after her brother discovered her voice, her life changed forever. “I remember before I went to sleep one day, my dad came and asked me, ‘Do you want to go? Do you want to go to the United States?’ I told him, ‘Yes baba, I want to go. I want to be a singer, I want to be an artist.’ Everyone was very nervous. It's a big move, a whole new culture. My family made a lot of sacrifices to make sure that I'm achieving my dreams and this means the world to me”.

Destined for the stage, Elyanna spent much of her childhood watching live performances of artists like Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Prince and Freddie Mercury, who all inspired her to perform at school. “I have memories of singing at school talent shows,” she recalled, “I was shy but when I go on stage I’m fierce. I was in fifth grade and remember the teachers looking at me really impressed like ‘she’s very shy normally!’ My real name is Elian, so I always say when I work, Elyanna steps in”. 

The first thing that struck me upon meeting Elyanna was her warm, cheerful energy. She had an incredibly sweet and gentle persona - a contrast to the version I saw performing live (which all makes perfect sense now). Elyanna has the stage presence of an artist that’s been in the industry for years. Truly in her element, she was fierce, bold and captivating. Her powerful vocals combined with the sounds of the oud, tabla and darbuka drew in a crowd of festival-goers from many different backgrounds, which was beautiful to witness. What made it even more beautiful was the number of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs being waved proudly; something I never thought I’d see at Coachella. 

We spoke a little about her decision to perform a full set in Arabic; “I feel like it was such a huge challenge to sing Arabic in America”, she admitted, “It’s very rare, I've never seen it before, it’s weird. I feel like I never had an example of that and I just decided to be that example. I wanna be a part of a bigger purpose which is making Arabic music. You don’t understand how grateful I am that I did not have to sing in English. I felt so free”. Experiencing her set was a refreshing reminder that music is universal and has the ability to transcend language.  

Moving to the US as a teenager with her parents and siblings, Elyanna left behind everything she knew. It’s common for diasporic children to quickly assimilate to their new surroundings, and find it hard to maintain their cultural heritage in the process, but Elyanna was keen not to let this happen. “Nazareth is very simple, very authentic, it’s the Holy Land. As simple as walking in the streets, it’s the most beautiful thing ever”, she smiled, “I had a lot of neighbours, a lot of people always coming over to our house. I love when our house is full, we’re drinking Arabic coffee, talking. These little things make me feel like home. I always say that even when we’re in LA, we like to keep it like that. We try to keep the culture, we try to keep the traditions. We’re very caring in Nazareth. And I want to make sure we keep that”. 

For context, it’s important to note that Chile has the largest Palestinian population outside of West Asia. Roughly half a million Palestinians have made the South American country their home since as early as the 1850’s. Elyanna however is of mixed heritage with her father’s side residing in Chile. Each year she would visit to spend time with her paternal grandmother and extended family. “All my cousins are from Chile and speak Spanish, it’s very cute,” she laughed, “Every Christmas we would go to Chile and listen to Julio Iglesias and just jam. I have a huge family in Chile and a big family in Palestine so I was very influenced by both cultures…I feel like that’s just who I am. I don’t try to be something else, I'm just doing my thing” I asked her what some of her favourite elements were about both cultures; “They’re both so lit, they love to party and have fun. They both care so much about family and tradition. I think that’s the most beautiful thing ever”.

After moving to the US, Elyanna became part of the SLXCO group, a Canadian record label founded by Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, widely known for managing The Weeknd. “I was discovered by a producer called Nasari who introduced me to the whole SLXCO fam. They’re my team, my family”. In 2021, she signed with Universal Arabic Music, also founded by Slaiby. With a roster of talented, globally-recognised artists under their belt, it’s evident that Elyanna is in good hands. 

Currently working on an album and shooting videos in the US for upcoming releases, she’s excited to continue creating, letting me know that there’s so many more layers to ‘Elyanna’ and so much more she can do. When she’s not busy working on her craft, Elyanna finds moments of joy and stillness unwinding at ceramic classes, or making Arabic coffee for her friends - something she assures me she’s very good at. 

Elyanna is someone who appears to naturally possess all the qualities desired in an artist. She’s talented, beautiful, charismatic, and so much more. While the global stage is beginning to chart sounds outside of the English-language and cultural brackets, there seems to finally be a space for Arabic music. If there’s one artist that can showcase it on the centre stage, I don’t doubt for a second that it’s her. 

Discover more from Elyanna here