Ya nabi salam alaika
Released in 2010, “ In Shah Allah” (“God Willing”) has been downloaded more than 11 million times on YouTube. Collectively, his YouTube vides have received more than 50 million hits. The internet allowed him to bypass traditional media and publicize his work directly to people around the world.ĭeftly taking advantage of opportunities offered by the internet, Zain was the first Muslim artist to reach a million fans on Facebook today, he boats 2.5 million fans.
In a July 2011 interview in the British lifestyle magazine Emel, Zain noted that the internet was both “revolutionary” and the “biggest blessing” for Muslim artists, since they face considerable obstacles in getting Islamic-themed music on radio and television. These songs are integral to a global marketing campaign that seeks to reach fans via social networking sites, YouTube, and other internet media platforms. While Zain sings in Arabic and has released songs in French, Malay and other languages, most of his work is in English. But the moral message of his music is clothed in a pop idiom immediately recognizable to the young. That combination is emblematic of the theme of the album that faith in Islam, God (Allah), and personal dignity are the answer to the systematic challenges facing modern Muslims. On the album’s cover, Zain wears jeans, a black jacket, and a dapper cap-all items appropriate to a rhythm and blues concert-but is seated in quiet Islamic prayer. By May 2010, the record had earned the top position on ’s digital charts in the world music category. In 2011, Thank You Allah earned a double platinum award from Sony Music Indonesia. (Approximately 120,000 albums were sold in a country of approximately 27 million people.) That same year, Zain was the most googled personality in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the album earned eight platinum awards from Warner Music Malaysia in 2010 and was declared the top selling album in the country for the decade.
Thank You Allah went on to sell well throughout the Muslim world, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, in 20. Many leading personalities in the Egyptian music industry also attended the concert. Zain’s March 2010 concert in Cairo drew fans from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Kingdom. In a musical competition organized in January 2010 by Cairo’s Nogoom FM (the most-popular radio station in Egypt), the album’s second track, “Ya Nabi Salam Alayka,” was voted as the best religious song for 2009, beating out work by more-established singers. Released in November 2009 (little more than a year before the start of the Arab Spring) and featuring a good many songs sung in Zain’s excellent English, it was a surprise commercial success. Zain’s New York period and his work with Khayat served him well when he produced his debut album, Thank You Allah. On the album's cover, Zain is dressed as if for an R&B concert-but is seated in quiet Islamic prayer Khayat played a key role in the rapid emergence of Lady Gaga and went on to become one of America’s top music producers, working with Akon, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. The two men traveled to New York, where they worked in the city’s music industry with some of its brightest young stars. Born in Lebanon but raised in Sweden, Zain studied aeronautical engineering and partnered with an Arab singer/songwriter who had also migrated to Sweden, Nadir Khayat (known as “RedOne”). The importance of a change of nizam can be seen in the chief demand of demonstrators from North Africa to the Persian Gulf: “al-sha'b yuridu isqat al-nizam,”which means, “The people want to overthrow the system.”įew artists understand the yearning for change in the Arab World better than Maher Zain. Washington analysts have overlooked the political significance of the pop singer, who-like the Bob Dylan of the ’60s-represents a new generation of Arabs: Young people who want a new society and a new nizam (political system) in which Arabs no longer have to choose between modernity and Islam, and where neither Islam nor the West can be used to justify autocracy.