How Lebanese sensation Elissa defeated cancer

BEIRUT: The outpouring of support from fans around the Arab world for Lebanese singer Elissa continued Wednesday, a day after the mogul released her latest music video in which she publicly shared for the first time her struggle with breast cancer.

Fans were waiting for the singer to release a music video from her summer album, instead, she revealed she was fighting breast cancer which was discovered on December 26, 2017. 

In a tweet published Tuesday, Elissa dedicated the video to her beloved fans, “You are the reason I am strong and healthy… you are my strength. And this story is a thank you." Her latest release is titled "Illa Kol Elli Beyhbouni," Arabic for "For All Those Who Love Me,"

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You are the reason I am strong and healthy... You are my strength. And this story is a thank you “For all those who love me” ❤<a href="https://t.co/8NxAWymtQG">https://t.co/8NxAWymtQG</a></p>— Elissa (@elissakh) <a href="https://twitter.com/elissakh/status/1026767530399023105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The music video begins with a woman lying inside an MRI machine, captioned with the eery sentence: you have cancer.

It then takes another turn, after it becomes evident that the woman battling the disease is actually Elissa, with footage of the singer herself intertwined throughout the video.

A genuine audio recording is also featured, which recounts a conversation Elissa had with Angy, the director of the video, during which she shares feelings of concern, fear, and anger. 

In an interview with Annahar, producer and longtime friend Jean Nakhoul details how Elissa came across her disease through a simple medical check-up, which took her by surprise given her dedication to living a healthy life.

"She was shocked, but she didn't let the disease bring her down," he says. 

The aim behind the video he says, is to show and inspire women "that beating this disease is possible despite the hardship it brings."

In the immediate aftermath of the discovery, Elissa began a treatment of chemotherapy coupled with a bevy of other medication at one of Beirut's hospitals (which he did not name out of respect to the doctors' privacy).

The release of the video came as doctors announced "she was healed, its a celebration and a show of gratitude," he told Annahar. 

"She made it her goal to defeat this sickness, and now every performance will be held with even more passion."