Maher Zain

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Maher Zain
Background information
Birth name	Maher Zain
Born	March 16, 1981 (1981-03-16) (age 30) Tripoli, Lebanon
Origin	Tripoli
Genres	R&B, Soul music, Pop music, World music, Acoustic music
Occupations	Singer, musician, songwriter, composer
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Awakening Records, Sony Music
Associated acts	Irfan Makki, Mesut Kurtis
Website	[1]

Maher Zain (Arabic: ماهر زين‎) (born March 16, 1981) is a Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer of Lebanese origin. He also resided for a while in the United States. His debut album Thank You Allah, with 13 songs and two bonus tracks was released on 1 November 2009, with an exclusive Percussion Version and a French Version released shortly afterwards. He sings mainly in English, but also, amongst others, in French, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Malay.

Contents [hide] 1 Early life 1.1 2008: Involvement with RedOne 1.2 2009-2010: Breakthrough success & Thank You Allah 1.3 2011-present: Future plans and upcoming studio album 2 Discography 3 Awards 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Early life

His family moved to Sweden when Maher was only eight,where he continued his schooling. Maher got his first keyboard when he was ten.^{[citation needed]} He later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering.^{[1][verification needed]} During his teenage years, he liked to spend late nights at school with his friends where they would sing, rap, compose and experiment with music.^{[1][verification needed]}

[edit] 2008: Involvement with RedOne

After being involved for a while in the music scene as a music producer,^[1] Maher was introduced to RedOne, a Swedish music producer of Moroccan origin in Sweden. Maher started working with RedOne^{[verification needed][1]} on some of the latter's projects. Later, he moved to New York where he took part in producing Kat DeLuna on her debut album including hits "Whine Up" and "Run the Show".^{[verification needed][2]} Then he returned for a while to Sweden where he had his spiritual 'awakening'.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2009-2010: Breakthrough success & Thank You Allah

File:Maher zain 2.jpg

Maher Zain on "Save The Soul" concert, October 2010.

In January 2009, Maher Zain signed up and began working on an album with Awakening Records. The album peaked at number 2 on Amazon World Album charts. Through this album, he gained 8X platinum on Malaysia with the sales of 120,000 units. After released this album, he released some another versions of the album, which is Percussion Version on 2009 and Platinum Edition on 2011.

[edit] 2011-present: Future plans and upcoming studio album

Maher Zain announced that he had released a Malay version for "Insha Allah", having released French and Arabic version along with videos already, while adding that it would be a track on his second album.^{[citation needed]}
Fadly from the Indonesian band Padi is also contributing to "Insha Allah" in Bahasa Indonesia. Maher also sang "For The Rest of My Life" in Indonesian version, titled "Sepanjang Hidup". It released through Sony Music Indonesia.^{[citation needed]}
Another music video from Maher was released titled 'Freedom' on the end of April.

[edit] Discography

• 2009: Thank You Allah
• 2011: Single:Freedom

[edit] Awards

• In January 2010, Maher Zain won the best song for 2009 for 'Ya Nabi Salam Alayka', on Nujoom FM, the Middle East's biggest mainstream music station. He beat other top of the charts singers including but not limited to Hussein Al-Jismi, Mohammed Mounir and Sami Yusuf.^[3]