Song info
| Artist | Siba |
| Song | Dounana |
| Year of release | 2024 |
Review
Normally I pay little to no attention to viral trends, but at the end of April I was pointed toward the song Dounana through social media, where the video was being shared. The English translation made an impression, as did the performance.
The song turned out to be by the Syrian artist Siba, who lives in Berlin. She wrote the song herself and then recorded it, with Monkyman handling the production. The song was originally released on January 11, 2024, and the accompanying (black-and-white) video, funded by friends, acquaintances, and like-minded people, was made available on November 9, 2024, through online streaming services.
To draw extra attention to the song once more, on April 15, 2026, Siba posted the following text via her Instagram account @sibasmusic, including a link to the Dounana video.
Siba – Instagram 04/15/2026
And this time the video was picked up by many, many people. The media ran with it and the song became part of the algorithms, which is how it also appeared on my timeline. I was curious and listened, and read (!), and was impressed. The video with the English subtitles is beautiful, simple, and effective.
In the song, a woman (Siba) raps in Arabic. She is angry and makes that very clear. In unmistakable terms, the song expresses the consequences of (Western) imperialism, which has burdened much of the Arab world with problems that are nearly impossible to solve. The direct inspiration for the song is the war in Gaza, but unfortunately it is just as applicable to the Syrian civil war or the Iran war recently started by Trump.
Siba – Dounana
Lyrics
The song is essentially a poem written by Siba. The English translation is shown below. For completeness, the Arabic text has also been included.
Dounana
Eradicate our roots
Demolish our homes
Criminalise our existence
Falsify our origins
Separate our loved ones
And Slaughter our children
Take our blood for granted
And demonise our revolutionaries
Steal our knowledge
Keep our people oblivious
And torture our spirits
And denounce us our rights
Colonise our countries
And appoint our rulers
Appropriate our goods
And burn down our trees
Bomb our roofs
Make us out as liars
And watch our pains
And belittle our agony
Ignore our tears
And close our eyes
Mutilate our faces
And deny our feelings
Destroy our dreams
objectify our bodies
And darken our skies
And kill our peace
We will keep standing still
And our love stands in us
But who would you be without us
You would not be without us
You will not be without us© 2024 Siba
Interviews
Following the song’s sudden success, Siba was interviewed several times. These interviews are available in written form below.
The New Arab Siba interview 04/29/2026
The New Arab, 04/29/2026
#Dounana, an Arabic anthem fueled by resistance and a critique of Western supremacy, has taken the digital world by storm.
The New Arab sat down for an exclusive interview with the voice behind the viral hit, Syrian singer @sibasmusic.
How ‘Dounana’ became a viral anthem of outrage
It went viral overnight. Totally unexpected. I was very shocked. I was thankful that the song reached so far and beyond, and even reached people who hated it, because maybe they are exactly the people who should listen to it and feel these feelings also.
‘Dounana’ the poem was written almost two years ago. We had been witnessing a genocide unfold on our screens daily. The community started to lose hope in humanity. And meanwhile German media was completely failing to stay fair and to report with integrity, pushing a propaganda agenda of a government that is not even theirs. At the same time the German government trying everything in its power to suppress our voices, to intimidate us into silence.
Of course, as a result of this, what comes is anger. Anger is always there to tell us something is wrong, something is not working like it should be working.
It was overwhelmingly positive. The reactions, the messages. People are saying that the anger really resonates with them, really speaks to them, expresses something that they just want to express. Of course there were also negative comments from different groups. There were the people who support a certain agenda, a zionist agenda for exampale, or the people who are racist or anti refugees or whatever it is, you have it in Germany. I got some really awful messages as well and there is also another group of people who have a certain image of women.
I was 6 years old when I wrote my first poem. My musical journey started when I was 13 years old. In Syria I started to learn guitar. The style is an evolution at the end of the day. So it’s not something that came direcly to me that I chose, it’s more something that comes organically with time.
There is an album that’s coming very soon. It’s going to be a little bit different. In a sense it does of course stay true to the values, to the message. It will be four Arabic songs, three English songs.
Even thought it is a very angry message, at the end, in Arabic, it says [Arabic text]. It’s a message of: ‘we will still love, this is what will win in the end.’
© The New Arab 04/29/2026
Scene Noise Siba interview 05/02/2026
Scene Noise, 05/02/2026
It is a rare and satisfying thing for something to go viral for the right reasons. Last week, amidst the usual doom and gloom, the Instagram algorithm caught wind of a post by Syrian artist Siba commemorating the eighteen-month anniversary of her track, ‘Dounana’, produced by Monkyman. Almost instantly, the song spread like wildfire.
The sudden resurgence comes as no surprise. Siba’s raw rage and unflinching lyrics provide a cathartic experience that many in the Arab world have yearned for after witnessing over two years of the genocide in Gaza.
When asked about her headspace while writing the track, Siba simply replies, “Nothing.” The artist explains that she merely stepped out of the way of her own emotions, allowing the pen to hit the paper with no intellectual filter in between.
While deeply personal, the message of ‘Dounana’ is also expansive. Siba notes that the track is dedicated to all colonized people who have seen their cultures and societies suppressed, broadening its resonance to a global audience bound by a shared history of struggle.
Hi SceneNoise, I’m Siba, and I’m here today to tell you a little bit of the creation of the song ‘Dounana’.
‘Dounana’ was released one and a half years ago, and has been gaining some attention recently. And the poem was written about two years ago. At that time we had already been witnessing a genocide unfold on our screens, for the past months. We were starting to lose hope in humanity, we were being brutalized, silenced, oppressed when trying to speak about the truth. And what comes after this is anger. And the anger was as big as the injustice was.
I was sitting in my living room containing all of these huge emotions that had absolutely no other way to be expressed but this poem. And I really just started writing, there was no room for thinking, or the brain or logic, anything. I was just words being spilled out of the heart.
‘Dounana’ is about colonialism and post-colonial structures and the mass of destruction they bring to cultures, eco and socio-systems of indigenous people all over the world. And the pain is global. It’s shared. It’s enormous. And I am just incredibly honored and grateful that many people resonated with this message, and many people felt heard and seen by the anger, and for that I just want to say thank you.
© Scene Noise 05/02/2026
Siba video recordings for Dounana
Credits
- Siba – instruments, rap, and composition
- Monkyman – production
PARAZEITGEIST
Siba will soon release her debut album, PARAZEITGEIST:
Siba – Instagram 03/16/2026
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Siba goes viral – Dounana. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
