This paper considers the politics of identity and affect articulated in the music and lyrics of Lebanese band, Mashrou’ Leila, which is one of the most successful independent music bands in the Middle East. Independent music has received little scholarly attention in the context of the Middle East. Its dramatic growth over the last decade indicates shifting aesthetics amongst youth in the region. This paper explores the significance of the band and its music in critically and creatively opening up spaces to reimagine belonging and identity and subvert hegemonic identities, particularly with regard to gender and sexuality. Drawing on feminist and queer theories, I conduct a critical reading of the band’s musical lyrics, contextualize them and analyze their implications politically, socially and emotionally. I particularly focus on their questioning and (re)imagining of the everyday experiences of history, language, and pop culture, which are typically employed to reinforce and justify the erasure, exclusion and oppression of certain gendered and sexual bodies within predominantly Arabic-speaking societies. Through this critical reading, I unpack how the binarization of assimilation and resistance is complicated and blurred to include the reality of contradictory and intersecting identities, and to then make use of these contradictions and intersections productively and creatively, in a way that balances working towards long-term shifts and changes while also acknowledging the need and desire to continue to function and survive within these structures. I also highlight the ways in which their songs center and express the complexity, frustrations, uncertainties and struggles of trying to survive and exist day-to-day within repressive and oppressive structure, without identifying an immediate or clear solution. In this way, the band’s music not only acknowledges, but also demands the personal and collective emotional struggles required to exist and survive on a daily basis as abject subjects within repressive structures, while also trying to challenge and resist those structures by attempting to creatively make the unthinkable thinkable, and the impossible possible. I argue that Mashrou Leila’s music enables identity reconfigurations that, over time, can move beyond the creative space and enter the public and private spheres to support a more inclusive politics of gender and sexuality.