Reina Khoury on "REINA' Her Debut Album, Motherhood and Vulnerability

With her debut album REINA, the Jordanian singer is embracing every version of herself: the confident artist, the devoted mother, the woman who sometimes needs reassurance. In an exclusive conversation with JDEED, she opens up about motherhood, making music without a filter and learning that having it all doesn't necessarily mean doing it all.

The pressure that comes with being a woman who wants more than one thing out of life is, let's be honest, pretty real. You want to be ambitious, but present. Independent, but available. A good mother, a loving partner, a devoted daughter, a successful professional. And preferably, you'd like to do all of it without looking remotely overwhelmed.

It's an impossible balancing act, although that doesn't seem to stop us from trying. For Jordanian singer Reina Khoury, these contradictions have become the very material of her music.

After taking a two-year hiatus and embracing motherhood, the artist has returned with her debut album, REINA, a self-titled project that explores the different identities she inhabits and the emotions that accompany them. It's a particularly personal chapter for an artist who has been steadily building her place in the Arabic pop scene since releasing her first single in 2020.

Born and raised in Jordan, Khoury's sound brings together contemporary pop production and Arabic musical influences, with expressive vocals and lyrics that increasingly favour emotional honesty over poetic disguise. Her journey has already taken her from opening for Cairokee in Egypt and Jordan to performing in Dubai and at Jordan's Jerash Festival. But with REINA, she's less interested in proving what she can do than in showing who she actually is.

And that includes the parts of herself she once might have kept private.

Motherhood has a way of changing your understanding of yourself. Sometimes, it makes you feel invincible. Other times, it leaves you questioning everything.

Khoury knows both feelings intimately. Her singles Bi Alami and Ulli Inno Mafi Minni explore these opposing emotional states, offering two very different perspectives on the same life-changing experience. “Motherhood sits at the heart of both the songs in very different ways,” she tells JDEED.

“‘Bi Alami’ portrays how powerful, confident, and strong motherhood has made me feel. Becoming a mother has given me the belief that I can do anything I want to do if I just set my heart and mind to it which is a very freeing feeling,” she continues.

But that newfound confidence came with another, less comfortable emotion. “On the other hand, there is an aspect of self-doubt about whether I can achieve those things or not, which is a stage that hit me after that very confident stage.”

It's precisely why she wanted both songs to introduce the album. “It was important for me to show that motherhood can bring so many different feelings and that seeking validation from the people who matter most to you is a valid emotion to have as well.”

It's a refreshing admission in a culture that often expects mothers to describe the experience in extremes: either endlessly fulfilling or impossibly difficult. Khoury is interested in everything that exists between those two narratives.

There's something almost disarmingly intimate about Ulli Inno Mafi Minni. At its heart is a desire most of us recognise but don't always feel comfortable admitting: wanting someone we love to tell us we're special.

For Khoury, writing about that need was anything but easy. “‘Ulli Inno Mafi Minni’ is definitely the most vulnerable song on the album,” she says.

“The album is kind of split into two distinctive worlds, one that is very confident and strong and one that is more vulnerable and needs reassurance.”

It's a contrast that reflects her own experience of motherhood. “Motherhood really comes with both these aspects, it can make you feel like the strongest and most confident woman ever, but it can also bring doubts and can make you question if what you are doing is enough.”

Rather than attempting to soften those insecurities, she chose to confront them directly. “It definitely wasn’t an easy song to write at all, I put really honest and genuine feelings into it and didn’t want to put a filter on my writing which is a very scary thing to do, especially in a world where vulnerability is often sugar coated.”

Interestingly, it was also the first song she wrote for the album.

“I have made peace with myself and accepted that I cannot do everything perfectly"

“It’s the first song of the album that I wrote and it turned out into one of the most special ones.” Perhaps there's something to be said for starting with the thing you're most afraid to admit.

The emotional honesty running through REINA isn't accidental. Khoury has always been drawn to songwriting that says what it means, but becoming a mother pushed her to take that instinct further. “All of this has definitely led me to write more honestly,” she explains.

“I’ve always valued honest writing and connected more to music which says things exactly as they are, which I think is more common in Western writing.”

For an artist whose sound moves between Arabic musical heritage and contemporary pop, this directness has become an important part of her creative identity.

“I find myself really relating to songs in English which don’t use any metaphors, and experiencing motherhood definitely pushed me to write more honestly and to say things exactly as they are.”

It's an interesting approach to Arabic pop, where elaborate imagery and poetic expressions of love have long been part of the musical tradition.

Khoury isn't turning her back on that heritage. She's finding her own way of expressing emotions within it, allowing the words to feel as immediate as the feelings themselves. And sometimes, the most powerful thing a song can do is say something you've been struggling to put into words.

If motherhood has made Khoury more confident in some ways, it has also forced her to reconsider the expectations she places on herself. Because while the idea of having it all sounds wonderful in theory, the reality is often considerably more complicated.

“I have made peace with myself and accepted that I cannot do everything perfectly,” she admits.

“I have to constantly remind myself of this, and I have grown to believe that life is made of different phases and in every phase you have different priorities and that’s ok.”

It's the kind of perspective that sounds simple until you're the one trying to live by it. “I believe everything happens for a reason and everyone moves at their own pace.”

And while she has learned to be kinder to herself, she doesn't pretend that the pressure has disappeared. “I’m not going to lie, some days it’s harder to remind myself of this than others, and I think social media is part of the problem here.”

Like so many women, she recognises how easily scrolling through someone else's seemingly perfect life can make her question her own progress.

“Social media can quickly make you feel like you’re always lacking something or that someone is doing better than you are, which is why it’s important to put yourself in check and to focus on your own priorities.”

For Khoury, that means accepting that not every version of herself can receive equal attention at every moment. Some days, motherhood comes first. On others, it's music. And neither choice needs to be accompanied by guilt.

The Woman Behind REINA

It's rather bold to name your debut album after yourself. For Khoury, REINA is more than a collection of songs. It's a declaration of identity, shaped by two years of writing, motherhood, creative challenges and personal growth.

When we ask what she discovered about herself during the process, she doesn't hesitate to acknowledge how demanding it has been. “Because making this album took me two years, it has really taken me on a journey full of ups and downs which I learnt a lot from.”

But the experience also revealed a resilience she hadn't fully recognised. “It has allowed me to discover how resilient I am when it comes to really believing in my vision and trusting that this is exactly what I want to be doing now and to give it my 100% to make it come true.”

Building a career in music is rarely straightforward. Doing so while navigating the responsibilities of motherhood has brought an entirely new set of challenges.

“As an artist, making music and building a career is hard to navigate, but being a mom while being an artist is even tougher.”

Still, she has come away from the experience with a stronger sense of what she wants. “I learnt that I can balance things the ways I want to and create the life and career I want.”

And if there was ever any doubt about whether music was truly her calling, the album has put that question to rest. “It has also reinforced my love for music and how passionate I am about it. I always knew this is what I wanted to do but now I’m fully convinced this is the only thing I want to do in my life.”

A Little Bit of Reina in Every Song

So what does Khoury hope people take away from REINA? Not necessarily a particular message or a definitive understanding of who she is.

First and foremost, she wants them to feel something.

“I would love for them to have felt something strongly and for something to have moved them, maybe it helped them describe a certain emotion they couldn’t find the words for.”

And by the time the final song ends, she hopes listeners will have encountered the different sides of the woman behind the music.

“I hope by the final song they would have a picture painted of the woman and the stories I am describing on the album through the realities of motherhood, Jordanian culture, and the purity and vulnerability of emotions that come with love and partnership.”

Perhaps that's what makes this chapter of her career so compelling. REINA doesn't attempt to present a perfectly polished version of its creator. Instead, it makes room for the contradictions: confidence and insecurity, ambition and tenderness, strength and the occasional need to hear that you're doing enough.

And in a world that seems increasingly obsessed with appearing to have everything figured out, there's something rather powerful about a woman willing to admit that she doesn't. Reina Khoury isn't trying to be just one version of herself anymore....she's making music for all of them.

Keep up with Reina Khoury on Instagram, here