شذى حسون Shatha Hassoun
Shatha Hassoun holds the Iraqi flag when she won in Star Academy Arab World.
Background information
Born	March 3, 1981 (1981-03-03) (age 28) Casablanca, Morocco
Origin	Babil, Iraq
Genres	Iraqi music, Arabic, World
Occupations	Singer
Years active	2007 – present
Website	Official website

Shatha Amjad Hassoun Alshamery simply known as Shatha Hassoun (Arabic شذى حسون, also spelled Shada Hassoon, Shaza Hassoun; born 3 March 1981) is a Iraqi singer who rose to fame as the winner of pan-Arab TV talent show Star Academy Lebanon 4; she was the first female to win the competition.^[1]

[edit] Early life

Shatha Amjad Hassoun Alshamery was born in Casablanca, Morocco on 3 March 1981, to an Iraqi father and Moroccan mother. Her father is from Al-Hilla and he is a well-known reporter, her mother, a Moroccan history teacher. Hassoun studied English Literature in Casablanca and continued her university studies in Tangier where she joined the program of Hotel and Tourism Management. Then she continued her studies in France where she gained her master's degree.

She can sing in many languages and dialects (Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Italian and German).^[2][3][4][5]

Her family, which includes her parents and her only brother reside in Morocco despite Hassoun living in Isfik, near Beirut.

[edit] Art career

In 2007, Hassoun won Star Academy 4, making her the first female winner. Her performance of Fairouz's "Baghdad" earned her 54.8% of the vote which enabled her to reach the finals.

Recently, she made five songs along with their video clips. The first song "Rooh" was written and composed by Nikola Saada Nikhla. It was the first song to ever debut at number one on Rotana's PEPSI Top 20 charts, as it stayed at number for two weeks then peaking again at number one. The second song, "Asmallah Asmallah" or "Ebin Bladi", was written and composed by the Iraqi poet, Karim Al Iraqi as a gift to the Iraqi people and The Iraqi national football team which won the Asian Cup 2007. "Oushaq" was written and composed by the Lebanese singer Marwan Khoury. Hassoun also revived several traditional Iraqi songs; "Allela 7elowa" and "Aleik As'al" as a duo with Ilham al-Madfai. She also released an Iraqi song, "Mza'elni", that was written by Amar Almarhon and composed by Mohand Mehsen, and "Lo alf mara" which was the first song composed by Melhem Barakat for a non-Lebanese artist. Hassoun is also working with the Iraqi poet Karim Al Iraqi to produce new Iraqi songs,who has worked with the likes of Kazem al Saher. Hassoun will also be working with Salah Al-Sharnoby,Ramy Ayach,Assi Al-Hillani,Abadi Aljawher and George Wassouf for a common art work .

Away from the singing, Hassoun has participated in an Iraqi-Syrian-Egyptian television series called Rasael Men Ragol Mayet (Letters from a dead man), alongside Syrian actor Ghassan Mas'oud and many iraqi actors. The series talks about the problems of Iraqi society between 1979–2005. Directed by Hassan Hosny, the series was filmed in Syria and aired exclusive on Al-Baghdadia TV in the month of Ramadan 2008.

In late July of 2009, Shatha achieved her life dream and the dream of fans when she went to her country's capital Baghdad and sang there in two big charity concerts for the children of Iraq ,the first one in Al-elowea club and second one in hunting club,then she hold a press conference in Baghdad where she talked about her joyful to be a first Iraqi and Arab singer who vistited baghdad after war 2003 despite the unstable security in baghdad and Predict murder in 2009 from one of Astrologer .

Hassoun is working on her album that is going to include songs in the Iraqi, Lebanese, Gulf, Moroccan, and Egyptian dialects. Her main goal is—as she said in an interview—to represent her beloved country Iraq in the best way.

Hassoun is also filming her latest music video for the song "O'd 3rgoub" with Yehya S'ada in Beirut and she is touring in North America, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait , Sweden and Egypt.

[edit] TV Advertisments

Shatha Hassoun has also appeared in two television advertisements for the Iraqi mobile company, Zain.

1-During StarAc Arab 4,Shatha had won "the top 1 of the week" as the best student in week 13 in all respects (Evaluation,Study-Hard,Involve in classes,Deal with students ...etc),So the academic administration surprise her with an unique gift which was filming a TV advertisment for new SMS service in Zain(MTC Atheer-Previously) and as a national support by sing a traditional iraqi song in modern style alongside the famous iraqi singer Ilham al-Madfai who love shatha's voice

2-After Shatha Hassoun winning in Star Academy and when The Iraqi national football team won the Asian Cup 2007,Zain deal with Shatha and 3 players from the team in a second Mobile Advertisment,The work talk about optimism for New Iraq after it's wars and tragedies in past-time through several shots of Reconstruction of Iraq and they performanced the anthem .

[edit] Awards

Shatha Hassoun holds her "Best Uprising Artist" award during the annual Murex D'or award .

• 2007 Murex D'or Award - Best Uprising Artist (held in Casino du Liban)
• 2008 DG Festival Award - Best Rising Female Singer
• 2008 Art Festival Award- Best Rising Female Singer
• 2009 Murex D'or Award

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

[edit] References

1. ^ WALEG: Shatha First Live Interview^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Idol TV show contestant unites war-weary Iraqis". CNN News. 2007-03-29. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/28/iraq.star.academy/index.html. Retrieved 2007-03-29. 
3. ^ "Iraq unites over talent show star". BBC News. 2007-03-31. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6514375.stm. Retrieved 2007-03-31. 
4. ^ "Shada Hassoun is an Iraqi Idol". Desicritics.org. 2007-04-05. http://desicritics.org/2007/04/05/013337.php. Retrieved 2007-04-05. 
5. ^ "Singing the same tune on Iraq". The Christian Science Monitor. 2007-04-13. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0413/p08s01-comv.html. Retrieved 2007-04-13. 

[edit] External links

• Official Site