page_title: Lydia Canaan
section_title: Advocacy
hierarchical_section_title: Lydia Canaan / Activism and humanitarian work / Advocacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Lydia Canaan at MY World Partners Awards Ceremony
context_page_description: Lydia Canaan is a Lebanese singer-songwriter and humanitarian activist widely regarded as the first “rock star” of the Middle East.
  Credited as the first internationally successful Lebanese recording artist, Canaan rose to fame performing rock music in English amid enemy military attacks during the Lebanese Civil War, holding concerts in vicinities of Lebanon that were simultaneously being bombed. Hala Habib of Society wrote, “in a small country that was ripped by war, there was this young girl making a difference”.
  Canaan was the first Middle Eastern artist to sing solely in English, and the first to have music videos played on MTV Europe, MTV Southeast Asia, MTV Russia, and MTV Middle East. Her musical debut was described as having defied tradition, challenged convention, and transcended millennia-old gender barriers. According to Arabian Woman, “as a girl who grew up in the midst of a bloody civil war, Canaan was breaking down seemingly insurmountable barriers ... She rocked the establishment”. In 2015, Canaan was cataloged in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives.
context_section_description: In 2015, Canaan performed at a rally in solidarity with Cardinal Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi's call to elect a president of the Republic of Lebanon at St. George Cathedral in Beirut.
caption: Lydia Canaan at the United Nations MY World partners awards ceremony, UN Headquarters, New York City, 2014
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