Woman of the month
DANA ALFARDAN:
It's all about the music! Photography Charlotte Rutherford
Dana belongs to the third generation of one of the most well-known and powerful families of Qatar. She gave up a glamorous career in her family’s jewelry business to pursue her passion for music. Here she talks to ABODE about her new career as a music producer and her promising future ahead. It was never about fame. Nor was it the adrenaline rush of hearing the thousands of unknown faces chanting her name as she got up on stage. For Dana, it was always about the music. “I decided to sing in order to launch my album and launch myself into the world of music and establish my credibility as a musician and my commitment to music,” said Dana. After the launch of her debut album, Paint, Dana received raving reviews establishing her as serious musician, but she recently decided to change her career path by becoming a music producer. “Now that my album is out, I need to continue to contribute to music in the way that I know best, and that is writing.” Dana believes that having made her statement and becoming recognized in the music industry, the time is right to change directions.
Dana’s ambition is to help develop the music scene, to build a structure locally that absorbs serious musicians. In addition to songwriting, she is establishing a small independent label that will enable her to cultivate ties with music internationally and eventually help populate the local scene with musicians she’s working with around the world. “I have always believed in Qatar's capacity and commitment to music, particularly quality music. The type and genre that does not age. Hence the presence of classical music, in the form of the Philharmonic Orchestra and other such structures currently present in Qatar. In 10 years I can clearly see Qatar as an established centre for music within the region and globally,”
How and when did Dana develop this big passion for music? "When I was young, I used to love tinkering on my keyboard, which naturally drove my “My decision to stop singing is for the good of the music. I prefer to focus and grow with my writing, rather parents mad, but luckily they never stopped me. I then started writing nursery rhymes for my younger than dedicating so much time and energy to something sister when I realized how appalling a lot of the nursery that was never a part of where I wanted to reach musically. I want to develop my songwriting and expand rhymes were. A lot of my passion came from my family; my sisters and I were obsessed with musicals and we its reach and scope.” constantly performed them around the house. I finally realized how the joy of music was running through my Dana’s goal is to contribute to the development of a cultural platform that absorbs budding local and regional veins, but it wasn’t until my first pregnancy that I realized how much I wanted to and needed to express myself musicians, a platform on which they can perform at an through music." international level.
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