Therapy Home: MUSIC MONDAY: "The Chosen One" by Maher Zain

"Children can't follow the path of truth and integrity unless your example lights the way"

Hi,

I hope it is still not too late to publish my MM post this week. Just got back from work, and as usual I got to feed the cats, tidy up their room, etc, etc. After having my nice warm shower, and performed my Isha' prayers, now with a nice warm bowl of hot soup beside me here, I am typing whatever I can first and then I got to hurry to get through the famous LadyJava's blog to get her links before the clock strike twelve at midnight.

For this week post, I am putting up a beautiful song which is one of my favourites from Maher Zain. This song is very soothing to me and I do hope you love listening to it too. I will be back to edit and add whatever else at this post, perhaps to introduce this singer to those who have not heard of him. By the way, he is from Lebanon but is living in Sweden. There will be his concert in the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur very soon and I am sure the tickets will be sold out in no time.

Please see the following information if you are interested to attend his concert:

Live Concert Maher Zain
Also performing: Mesut Kurtis, Irfan Makki and Inteam
Venue: Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam
Date : 25th and 26th February 2011
Time : 7.30 p.m. to 12.00 midnight
Sponsored by : Inteam Records Sdn Bhd, Fiero Entertainment with the help of Awakening Entertainment

This song and the video are inspired by Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. Maher Zain and Awakening Records felt they had to respond to the recent attacks on Prophet Muhammad through cartoons and Facebook. The result is this music video. It's a small attempt at portraying the true character of our beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, may peace and blessings be upon him.

"HAPPY MUSIC MONDAY SPECIALLY TO DEAREST LADYJAVA AND MARZIE & ALL MEMBERS"

Biography

Maher’s first musical inspiration came from his father, who was a singer himself, performing locally in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Tripoli - Lebanon.

Fascinated by the music and instruments, Maher got his first keyboard when he was only ten and ever since music officially became part of Maher’s world.

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 in Sweden 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 with Swedish artists, and later moved with him 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 which included 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”. RedOne was on the verge of breaking into the big time, going on to work with artists like Akon, Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias, Brandy, New Kids on the Block, and Michael Jackson to mention just a few, and becoming one of the most sought-after music producers in the world. Maher however was restless and eventually decided that the music industry and all that surrounded wasn’t the right place for him and he returned to Sweden. It wasn’t until he met a group of brothers who were active in the Islamic community in Stockholm and he started regularly attending his local mosque that he felt like he’d reached ‘home’.

Maher feels blessed to able to finally find the right way, and feels like it’s his turn now to help others through his music to do the same: “If I had one thing I’d like to tell people out there it would be that it’s so easy to see the right way if we just open our eyes and look properly; that’s what happened to me.”

Award

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.

http://www.awakeningworldwide.com/05_news/index_2010_01.htm

Awakening Records: Maher Zain wins Nugoom FM's Best Song Award

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.

Maher has now commenced working on his new studio album. Actually the album can be released on April 2011, but due to Egypt's crisis, he will delay the date of released maybe in 2012. No title has yet been announced. Facebook update announcing new album. 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 (Malaysia). 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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJdFQcSZco0

Live snippet of Maher Zain's song dedication to mothers.

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