Well hello, Dolly

23-year-old Dolly Shahine is already something of a chameleon. Her first video clip “Moumou Eini”, about a girl who rejects her high-society status for a downtown club, appeared in November 2005 and caught the eye of director Khaled Youssef, who cast her as a devious beach beauty in this year’s Ouija. Another film, Khams Njoum, three more clips and a lucrative cosmetics deal will follow by the end of the year to underline her versatility. Her look, no doubt enhanced by a smattering of Brazlian genes, regularly fluctuates between femme fatale, sophisticated superstar and charming ingénue, and in person she is a youthful, effortlessly pretty young woman who seems to know everything just now is going her way. Even if she didn’t win the battle over the cover shot…

 

NOX:Hey Dolly. It’s extremely nice to meet you. Firstly, you look completely different in real life than to your photos, like a different person… I have to say, you look much better in person.

Dolly:I know, I never look myself! I swear! In all my pictures, with make-up and the lighting, and even in the videos, I look totally different. My hair is usually curly, so when I straighten it, I’m a different girl. When I wear like this, in pigtails, I’m different again… Even my friends are surprised when they see me in a magazine, sometimes they don’t even recognise me. It’s another person entirely when I’m in this role.

 

NOX:So, what brings you to Cairo?

Dolly:I’ve been shooting more video clips. Two, actually. My next song is being released in early November, although I can’t tell you the name yet, then another follows on two months after that. I also start shooting a film after Ramadan, but I am going back home to Lebanon before. I miss home!!

 

NOX:Where are you most famous, though, Cairo or in Lebanon?

Dolly:Cairo at the moment, for sure. Because of the film Ouija which came out earlier this year, where I both starred and sang the main song “Ana Zay Ay Bint”; everybody in Egypt knows me as that girl. In Lebanon, they definitely know who Dolly Shahine is; one month ago, a magazine put my picture on the front cover and it was the biggest selling issue they ever had… and it was only the second time I had ever been on the front cover of a magazine.

 

NOX:Excellent! I hope our accountant will read this…

Dolly:It was unbelievable, everything was sold out. Sold more than the biggest stars. That was incredible…

 

NOX:So, are you a control freak, then?

Dolly:No! I feel like, well, if I can do it, why not? I have the imagination to produce something, why not? If I have my own ideas, why not? It’s not like control. I don’t look in the mirror and plot how I’m going to be famous, and will do anything… I really don’t care. Actually, in a way, I kind of know I’m going to be famous!

 

NOX:Final question, what is it about Lebanon, that you all seem to have this star quality, this real exhibitionism and carefree approach to life…?

Dolly:War. Basically. I was born right in the middle of the war, right in the middle of the Israeli invasion. I just want to pursue my dreams and live life to the fullest because you never know what is going to happen. I think all Lebanese people have this; they want to live, they want to enjoy their lives. Tomorrow something could happen and khalas. That’s why we have this dynamic life. And for me, it means I just want to live my life.