maher zain

Maher Zain (in Arabic: ماهر زين‎ , pronounced maa-hirr zay-ne) (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, Turkishand Malay.                                                                      

Early life

Maher Zain was born in 1981 in Lebanon.^{[citation needed]} His father Mustafa Maher was a local singer in his hometown Tripoli, Lebanon.^{[citation needed]} His family moved to Sweden when Maher was only eight,where he continued his schooling. Maher got his first keyboard when he was ten.^[1] He later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering.^{[2][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.^{[2][verification needed]}                               

2008: Involvement with RedOne

After being involved for a while in the music scene as a music producer,^[2] Maher was introduced to RedOne, a Swedish music producer of Moroccan origin in Sweden. Maher started working with RedOne^{[verification needed][2]} 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][3]} Then he returned for a while to Sweden where he had his spiritual 'awakening'.^{[citation needed]}

2009-2010: Breakthrough success & Thank You Allah                                                                               In January 2009, Maher Zain signed up and began working on an album with Awakening Records. Maher’s debut album Thank You Allah reached the number 1 spot onAmazon.com World Music charts and number 9 on the R&B charts.[2]^{[citation needed]}

Following Maher's concert in Malaysia, Maher's name became the fastest rising name search on Google in Malaysia.^{[verification needed]} [3]

2011-present: Insha Allah in Malay 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.[4]

Maher has now commenced working on his new studio album which will be released in April 2011.^{[citation needed]} No title has yet been announced.^{[verification needed] [4]} Maher sang a portion of a song from the album without backing music in a morning talk show slot at Malaysia's television channel, TV9. Maher explained that the song, a dedication to his mother, would be a "happy" song, as opposed to the usual songs dedicated to mothers that "are sad, and you want to cry listening to those."^[5]