When you hit play on Zeina’s Eastend Confessions, you’d be forgiven for double-checking the fine print to confirm that it is in fact a 2024 release and not some unearthed gem from 20 years prior. The Montreal-bred singer’s first proper full-length album presents a vivid flashback of her formative post-Y2K dance-pop and R&B influences, recalling both the proudly provocative divas of the day and the internationalist, off-kilter sensibilities of producers like Timbaland and The Neptunes. But in Zeina’s case, the oud-driven melodies, hand-clapped rhythms, and clattering percussion of sweat-generating bops like “NASTY” and “Problematic” aren’t mere exotic ornamentation to help her get her freak on; rather, they’re deliberate assertions of an Arab heritage rarely platformed in Western pop music. Where Zeina’s earliest R&B recordings from the late-2010s largely downplayed her Lebanese Egyptian identity, Eastend Confessions boldly reclaims it—as she declares on the sizzling opener “Hot”: “My body talk[s] with an accent.” “Growing up, I feel like we were kind of taught to mute our culture,” Zeina tells Apple Music. “Especially in the early 2000s, it wasn’t really accepted to be an Arab person. So I always felt a little bit like, ‘I cannot represent this,’ because it was ingrained in me almost from a fearful place. But as I grew up, I realized, ‘No, that's what makes me different. This is truly me, and I have the power to be this right now and not be scared and really embody that.’” On Eastend Confessions, Zeina isn’t merely hybridizing the traditional music of her culture with the futurist pop music of her childhood—she’s imagining an early 2000s landscape that made space for people who look and sound like her. With “Hooked,” she delivers an irresistible R&B jam that channels the sassy attitude of Destiny’s Child and Mary J. Blige, heightening the song’s amorous allure by dropping in a few lines en francais; by contrast, the aching “Money or Love” sees her tapping her inner Alicia Keys for a soulful piano serenade elevated by an exquisite string arrangement. “‘Money or Love’ talks about the battle between making decisions for your career versus sometimes disappointing people that you love,” Zeina admits. “That’s more of a heartfelt record. It took me a long time to be able to write like this—it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to put in the hours, it’s a craft. But I think it’s really important to speak from experience and my truth.”