“As early as I can remember, I was always singing or humming songs, enjoying being onstage and making people laugh or cry,” says singer and actress Elizabeth Ayoub.

For Ayoub, the youngest of seven siblings, singing was a way to carve out a private sphere, wherever she may have been. Born in Lebanon, she and her family fled the country at the outset of the civil war and began a new life in Venezuela.

Spanish quickly joined Arabic as a second mother tongue. School brought English and French, with a level of fluency that sees her dream in all four.

Still, certain languages seem more suited to different purposes, says the quadrilingual singer.

“I feel that Spanish and Arabic lend themselves to more dramatic interpretation than English or even French.

“When I sing in Spanish, I transport myself to the streets of South America and the smells and images of the land I grew up in, to the stories of the people, to Spain and its Moorish influence. And then it’s as if I make a shift when I sing in Arabic…. I’m connecting to a past I haven’t reconciled with, my homeland. For me, it’s filled with much sadness and yearning, but also with great love.”

Her music defies categorization.  With instrumentation that blends classical Spanish guitar and sounds from the oud, and vocals that unite lilting, Eastern-inspired phrasing with Alison Krauss-worthy country riffs, it is almost uniquely rounded.

She draws on the musical traditions of all her cultures, from composers Gabriel Yared and Ennio Morricone to Fairuz, Ziad Rahbani, Sabah and Juan-Luis Guerra—all artists, “who don’t do it for the fame or money, but because they truly love the art of creating sound.”

But the message at the heart of her songs is certainly universal—love.

“It’s the one thing everyone craves,” she says. “Love of one’s homeland, love for life, love for the one who breaks your heart and the one that lights it up again.”

Find out more about Elizabeth Ayoub at elizabethayoub.com