AUGUST | #Elissa

Hoping to break the stigma around breast cancer in Lebanon and send a powerful message of empowerment to the community, Lebanese pop star Elissa posted the video link to her new song titled ‘To All Those Who Love Me’ on August 7, revealing her silent battle with breast cancer and inspiring journey towards healing. The news brought fans and fellow artists to tears, taking the internet by storm for days after its release. Directed by Angy Jammal, the video starts with a scene where Elissa is informed that she has early-stage breast cancer and before going on to depict her difficult yet hopeful path to recovery across different settings and features a real-life voice recording sent to Jammal by the singer followed by a voiceover narration of her battle against the disease. Initially diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2017, Elissa managed to keep her condition secret all the way through and utilized postrecovery to deliver an important message about the importance of early detection. “I’d do my radiotherapy session, go to the studio, finish another session, rest for two hours and then go to the studio again,” she tells in the voiceover. The video heavily impacted the online community, with fans, friends, politicians, journalists and fellow artists taking to Twitter and other social networks to voice their support and admiration for Elissa. International media outlets were also quick to report on the release through touching headlines and videos that were retweeted by Elissa for the most part, reinforcing her status as one of the most active/followed Arab celebrities on Twitter.