Haitham Shomali is Palestinian and has been in the music industry his entire life. From childhood, growing up with a musical family and the youngest of six, Haitham stood out among his siblings to sing with the vocal strength of no one his age. His musical genius allowed him to master a total of 15 instruments on his own. At the age of 7, Haitham appeared his first music video with the help of his father.
Haitham has lived all over the Middle East and the world. In 2001, he moved to the US to complete his schooling, returning to the Middle East in 2006 after winning a slot and making it to the very last finals in the Middle East's version of American Idol. Click here to view Haitham's performance in Superstar 2006.
Haitham Shomali, the Palestinian singer, songwriter, composer and director, is ready for 2014! He was born in the United Arab Emirates. As the youngest of five children (four boys and one girl), and privy to a very musical family, his brothers would take him along with them to perform from the age of 7. As a young boy, he became proficient at a total of 13 instruments: piano, keyboard, violin, sax, accordion, guitar, bass guitar, drums, Darbuka, Riq, Katem, Bongos, and more. At the age of 9 his father took him to Egypt and produced an album for Haitham called "Markeb Waraa." Following that, he began performing his own concerts in the Middle East.
In 2001, Haitham and his family moved to the United States, where he attended high school. In 2005, Haitham competed and was chosen to join one of the most famous programs in the Middle East, Superstar (now Arab Idol), the equivalent to American Idol. He then moved to Lebanon and began his successful career, he currently resides in Amman, Jordan. So he is all over the map... which only enriches his musical experience. You really cannot pinpoint his style nor his dialect. Living in all these places exposed him to different dialects, languages and musical tastes.
In 2008, Haitham sang on a movie soundtrack, sponsored by Pepsi, titled "Baher El Nojoom." This included his second successful song titled, "Tlatee Mnaen," which he wrote, composed and arranged. In that same album, he composed veteran singer, Wael Khfoury's song, "Shu Mbakakee."
In 2009, he composed a new song for the artist Ayman Zbeeb, called "Ma Bdaa Tooul," and compositions for several other artists have followed since. The next year, in 2010, Haitham, created his third popular, single called, "Shu Sayer." This song was also composed by him, and arranged by artist Michael Fadel.
In 2012, Haitham released his first full album titled, "Jowa El'Alb," which has been a success. The list of his success and draw to fans continues as you will find that Haitham now boasts a verified page on Facebook with over 560K in followers (www.facebook.com/haithamshomali ) from all over the Middle East. Haitham can also be found on several phone apps. Yala and Anghami are two of the most popular music applications that regularly list him as a top artist.
Haitham recently returned from several visits to Egypt and Lebanon. Just last week he was a guest on, Saba7 El Khair Ya Arab, a very popular Lebanese television show where he discussed his most recent completion of a musical commercial for the Palestinian telecommunications provider, Jawaal. After the video was released, it was widely agreed that he shined as the commercial's star.
He loves his homeland and visits Palestine often. He has composed a heart felt song about his pain for his country titled, "Watan ElSalam."
This past year Haitham was invited to sing at two of the largest concerts held in the country. One was at the, Borak Solayman, arena and the other was the Annual Festival in Nazereth. You can view some video footage of the concerts below. In the footage Haitham sings some of his hits along with traditional songs about Palestine. The crowd always loves his presence on the stage, and it is obvious he loves them back.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is pleased to announce that Palestinian musician Haitham Shomali will be recognized for his success at the upcoming 2014 ADC National Convention: It takes a community! Haitham will also perform on the evening of Saturday, June 14, as part of the Saturday Evening Gala. ADC has chosen Haitham to receive the 2014 Excellence in Arts Award for his positive service as a role model for the youth and for being the first Palestinian artist to successfully arrange, compose, write and release his own productions while successfully releasing his own brand of music.