The family moved to Sweden when Maher was only 8, where he continued his schooling, and later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering. With things changing around him, one thing remained the same – his strong passion for music. He would spend late nights at school with his friends where they would sing, rap, compose and experiment with music in every way. It didn’t take him long to realize that music became an integral part of who he is.
After being involved for a while in the music scene as a music producer, Maher was introduced to RedOne, a gifted music producer who was fast rising in the music scene in Sweden. Maher started working with RedOne and later moved to New York. For a few years he was in the middle of the hot rush of the NY music industry, working with chart topping artists such as
Kat Deluna on her debut album including smash hits ‘Whine up’ and ‘Run the Show’. Maher had what many would describe as a dream job for someone so young in such a glamorous business, but for Maher it felt like this was far from what he would call ‘the dream’, “I loved the music but I hated everything that surrounded it, it always felt like something wasn’t right”.
In January 2009, Maher Zain decided to work on an album that reflects his identity – Arab, Western and Muslim – and signed with Awakening Records. Maher’s debut album Thank Youa Allah reached the number 1 spot on Amazon’s World Music charts and number 9 on the R&B charts.
In January 2010, in a music competition organized by Nujoom FM (Egypt’s biggest music radion station) Maher’s track ‘Ya Nabi Salam Alayka’ was voted as the best song for 2009. Runners up included big names like Hussein Aljismi, Mohammed Mounir and Sami Yusuf. Maher has already performed at sold out concerts in Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Holland, Sweden, and the US amongst others and is fast becoming the ‘next superstar of Islamic music’.
