Maher Zain

Maher Zain (Arabic: ماهر زين‎ ; born 16 July 1981) is a Muslim Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer of Lebanese origin. With more Facebook fans than any other Muslim artist, award-winning singer-songwriter Maher Zain is one of the biggest stars in modern Islamic music. He released his debut album Thank You Allah, an internationally successful album produced by Awakening Records, in 2009. He released his follow-up album Forgive Me in April 2012 under the same production company.

Career

Beginnings

Maher Zain's Lebanese family emigrated to Sweden when he was eight. He completed his schooling there, gaining a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. After university, he entered the music industry in Sweden and linked up with RedOne, the Moroccan-born Swedish producer, in 2005. When RedOne moved to New York in 2006, Maher Zain followed soon after to continue his music industry career in the USA producing for artists such as Kat DeLuna.

On returning home to Sweden, he became engaged once more with his Islamic faith and decided to move away from a career as a music producer to become a singer/songwriter of contemporary R&B music with a strong Muslim religious influence.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. The band consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar), Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals), Jamie Cook (lead guitar, rhythm guitar) and Nick O'Malley (bass, backing vocals). Former band member Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) left the band in 2006 shortly after their debut album was released.

They have released five studio albums: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011) and AM (2013), as well as one live album, At the Apollo (2008). Their debut album is the fastest-selling debut album by a band in British chart history, and in 2013, Rolling Stone ranked it the 30th-greatest debut album of all time.

The band have won seven Brit Awards—winning both Best British Group and Best British Album three times, and have been nominated for three Grammy Awards. They also won the Mercury Prize in 2006 for their debut album, in addition to receiving nominations in 2007 and 2013. The band have headlined at the Glastonbury Festival twice, in 2007 and again in 2013.

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys are marketing campaigns for food and other products. Although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on the site for their upcoming song and music video. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.

Awakening Records

Awakening Records is a UK-based media production owned and operated by Awakening Worldwide. In 2003, it was created by four British and American entrepreneurs offering a wide range of products for a new modern faith-inspired and value driven music market. Awakening Records produce songs in both music and vocals-only formats in Arabic, English, Turkish, Malay, Bahasa, Hindi, Persian and Urdu. Besides Awakening Records, other divisions in Awakening management are Awakening Productions, Awakening Publications and Awakening Live.

Albums produced by Awakening Records

Artists

Philanthropy activities

In 2012, Awakening Records took part for the "Sound of Light" charity concerts. In 2013 and 2014, the record label took part in organising charity concerts in coordination with Islamic Relief, Human Appeal and other charity organisations around the world with the help of artists Maher Zain, Hamza Namira, Mesut Kurtis, Raef and Irfan Makki.

Martin Garrix

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Martijn Garritsen (born 14 May 1996), commonly known by his stage name Martin Garrix (by his logo Mar+in Garri×), is a Dutch DJ, composer, musician and record producer. He is best known for the track "Animals", which was a top 10 hit in more than 10 countries; the song has peaked at number 1 in Belgium and the United Kingdom, and number 3 in Ireland. His single "Wizard", produced with Jay Hardway, was successful in numerous countries in 2014. Debuting at number 40 of DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs, he is currently ranked number 3, behind Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Hardwell.

Career

Martin Garrix learned to play guitar at age 8. In 2004, Martin Garrix expressed interest in becoming a DJ after seeing Tiësto perform at the Olympic games in Athens. Garritsen took particular inspiration from the track "Traffic", prompting him to download specialist software and enabling him to start composing. In 2013, Garritsen graduated from the Herman Brood Academy, a production school in Utrecht. Martin Garrix used multiple aliases, among them GRX. He ghost writes tracks for other artists, and despite this, only one in fifty of his tracks have made it out to the public.