Maher Zain / ماهر زين

Maher Zain (in Arabic ماهر زين) (born in Tripoli, Lebanon in 1981) is a Swedish singer and music producer of Lebanese origin. He sings mainly spiritual Muslim songs and nasheeds. His debut album "Thank You Allah" of 13 tracks and two bonus songs was released on 1 November 2009. He sings in a number of languages, but mainly in English and Arabic.
Maher Zain was born in 1981 in Lebanon. His father Mustapha Maher was a singer in his hometown Tripoli (in Lebanon). His family moved to Sweden when Maher was only eight, where he continued his schooling. Maher got his first keyboard when he was ten. He later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering. 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 in every way.
After being involved for a while in the music scene as a music producer, Maher was introduced to RedOne, a Swedish music producer of Moroccan origin in Sweden. Maher started working with RedOnealongside Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Lady GaGa and Michael Jackson. Later, he moved to New York where he took part in producing Kat DeLuna, Abdel Rahman Aouni and others. Then he returned for a while to Sweden where he had his religious awakening.
In January 2009, Maher Zain began working on an album and signed with Awakening Records. Maher released his debut album under Awakening Records. Maher’s debut album Thank You Allah reached the number 1 spot on Amazon’s World Music charts and number 9 on the R&B charts. His album mixes the sounds of R&B with traditional spiritual, soul and contemporary pop music, not just updating spiritual music and nasheed but fearlessly reviving it with contemporary flair. Maher’s debut album "Thank You Allah" is an instant classic of great power and timeless, unassailably intense spirituality. He's now fast becoming recognized as one of modern Islamic Music’s seminal voices after his ground-breaking single and animated music video "Palestine Will Be Free", his music video “Insha Allah” shot on location in London and directed by famous British director Mike Harris who has worked with Coldplay and Madonna among others, and his latest video “The Chosen One” - about the life and the peaceful teachings of Prophet Muhammad - shot in Los Angeles. Maher is clearly poised to take up modern Islamic Music to a new level. As a supremely gifted artist and producer, Maher brings his music to a wider audience not by watering down his message, but by making songs of supreme power, conviction, and glorious beauty, fusing elements of R&B, traditional spiritual music, pop, Arabic and Turkish music into daring arrangements.
Since Maher's concert at Malaysia, Maher's name was the fastest rising name search on Google Zeitgeist at Malaysia, beating some other singer like Lady GaGa, Justin Bieber and Malaysian's no.1 singer, Siti Nurhaliza.
Maher had written a status on his Facebook on November 29 2010 that he officially started his working for his new studio album which will released around 2011/2012.
In January 2009, Maher won Best Religious Song for 2009 from Nujoom FM radio for "Ya Nabi Salam Alayka".