Ahmed Chawki ( ar, أحمد شوقي; born 31 May 1982), known professionally by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Chawki, is a Moroccan singer, songwriter and producer. Chawki began his career in the early 2000s. He had a music band named La Paloma which mainly focused on Arabic and Moroccan music. On occasion of the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

, he was featured in a football-themed song " Magic in the Air" by

Magic System Magic System is an Ivory Coast, Ivorian coupé-décalé band from Abidjan. It was founded in 1996 and comprises Asalfo, Goude, Tino, and Manadja. Magic System's recordings in the Zouglou dance style have featured in the charts throughout Africa ...

, a hit in France and Belgium. He is currently signed to

RedOne Records RedOne Records is an international record label founded by Moroccan-Swedish record producer RedOne in 2014. He is the label's main producer. In 2010, RedOne had established 2101 Records. Previously an imprint under Republic Records, RedOne distri ...

, an international record label founded and owned by the renowned producer.Al Ahdath al Maghribiyya: أحمد شوقي يصور «كليبه» مع النجم الأمريكي بيتبول
HitRadio Maroc: Avec l'artiste marocain Ahmed Chawki

Early life

Ahmed Chawki was born on 31 May 1982 in the town of Jbeldersa,

Tétouan Tétouan ( ar, تطوان, tiṭwān, ber, ⵜⵉⵟⵟⴰⵡⴰⵏ, tiṭṭawan; es, Tetuán) is a city in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles so ...

in Morocco. He has been composing and singing poems since childhood. He studied at the National School of Theatre and Singing in

, and took part in a number of events and won several awards. He then enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts in Tétouan, specializing in classical and Western singing, while studying musical theory.

Music career

Early career

In 2000, Chawki took the first prize at the Arab Music Festival, organized by "Maison du Littoral" in Tetouan. He then formed his musical band La Paloma alongside other young musicians.Al Khabar Maroc: المنتج العالمي المغربي ريدوان أنتج أغنية جديدة للفنان أحمد شوقي
La Paloma that made a fusion sound based on Arab, Moroccan and flamenco music participated for years to come on several national and international festivals, with big success and media coverage.Al Ahdath al Maghribiyya المنتج العالمي ريدوان يتعاقد مع أول فنان مغربي أحمد شوقي
As a result, he became a regular guest on television shows and on radio channels, including 2M via the program ''Nasima and Chanel One''. His hit songs included "Ya Lmima", "La Paloma" and "Sinine", the latter in collaboration with the Spanish band Librejano. 2009 and 2010 saw release of further hits by Chawki including "Inta Lya", "Ya Nassini", "Ghaly" and "La Paloma" with moderate success, despite lack of support by record labels.

2013: Breakthrough

Chawki caught the attention of RedOne during the production of the collective pan-Arab

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

work "Bukra" (in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

بكرة meaning tomorrow) in cooperation with

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

. Eventually Chawki was included alongside a great number of Arab artists in the project. Ahmed Chawki's breakthrough came in 2012, when he teamed up with RedOne. At that time, RedOne had produced Khaled's latest album ''

C'est la vie C'est la vie may refer to: * ''C'est la vie'' (phrase), a French phrase, translated as "That's life" Books * ''C'est la Vie'' (comic strip), an English-language comic strip by Jennifer Babcock * ''C'est la Vie'', a 2004 memoir by Suzy Gershman ...

'' and the title track "

" opening the door for further collaborations with

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

acts including Ahmed Chawki with "Habibi I Love You", a multilingual crossover song with Arabic elements and western dance tunes. In 2013, his collaboration with Moroccan–Swedish producer

RedOne Nadir Khayat ( ar, نادر الخياط; born 9 April 1972), better known by his stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan singer, songwriter, record producer and record executive. As a record producer and songwriter, he has worked with many high-profi ...

in the international hit "

Habibi I Love You "Habibi I Love You" is a 2013 song by Ahmed Chawki featuring rapper Pitbull. The original song was bilingual in Arabic performed by Chawki in Arab dialect (rather than classical Arabic) and rap section in English performed by Pitbull. The single ...

" (meaning "darling, I love you") featuring the American rapper

Pitbull Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...

was a huge success.Charts in France: Kenza Farah collabore avec Pitbull pour le single "Habibi I Love You" d'Ahmed Chawki
The song became a big summer hit on the

ern charts as well as charting Europe, including France and the Netherlands. The main version of "Habibi I Love You" by Ahmed Chawki featuring Pitbull became a big hit during the summer of 2013, with a live performance during the closing ceremonies of Festival Mawazine 2013 in Rabatأحمد شوقي مدلل "ريدوان " يحظى بما لا يحظى به الآخرون في موازين
and topping the charts in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

area during summer 2013. The song was notably a hit in France charting in SNEP, the official French Singles Chart with additional French lyrics as "Habibi I Love You (Mon Amour I Love you)" with vocals featuring French-Algerian singer

Kenza Farah Kenza Farah (born 8 July 1986) is a Franco-Algerian singer-songwriter. Her album '' Authentik'' won gold in its second week. It was followed up by '' Avec le cœur'' and ''Trésor''. Career Kenza Farah was born on 8 July 1986 in Béjaïa, Algeri ...

. The French trilingual version was launched with a live performance in Marseille during the "Fête de la Musique" on 21 June 2013. It was popularized in Spain and all Hispanic markets with additional Spanish lyrics interpreted both by Ahmed Chawki and singer Sophia Del Carmen, and rap by Pitbull. The song was a summer hit in the Netherlands through a Dutch version that included Dutch singer Do van Hulst, The Dutch version, actually a multilingual Dutch, Spanish, English and Arabic version was credited to Chawki featuring Pitbull & Do. It was performed by Chawki and Do on ''RTL Late Night''.Hitzound.nl: Chawki featuring Pitbull & Do – "Habibi I Love You"
The song also sold quite well in Scandinavian markets owing to involvement of RedOne, who had started his career in Sweden. Chawki's song has been covered including in Romanian as "Habibi" by Nek si Blondu de la Timișoara. Ahmed Chawki released an official Romanian version that features Mandinga with additional Romanian lyrics. Chawki performs his parts in Arabic and Spanish. The song has been subject to great number of remixes and appears in a number of compilations. It also remains greatly popular with

zumba Zumba is a fitness program that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. It was founded by Colombian dancer and choreographer Beto Pérez in 2001, and by 2012, it had 110,000 locations and 12 million people taking classes weekly. Zumba is a ...

fitness exercise adherents. Chawki released his second single "Ana Bahwak" (I Adore You) also produced by RedOneAl Shamal al Aan: ريدوان ينتج أنا بهواك أغنية جديدة للمغني الشاب أحمد شوقي

2014: Further success

On occasion of the

, Ahmed Chawki – now going with the mononym Chawki – was featured in a football-themed song " Magic in the Air" by

, in preparation for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

in Brazil. The song was a hit in France and Belgium and many other European charts. As in the case of "Habibi I Love You", its track was produced by RedOne. He simultaneously released his solo single " Time of Our Lives" again produced by RedOne and released on RedOne Records. A French-language version as "Time of Our Lives (Notre Moment)" and an Arabic version "Farhat al 'Aalam" were also released.

Awards and nominations

Africa Music Video Awards

!Ref , - , rowspan="5", 2016 , rowspan="5", Tsunami , African Video of the Year , , , - , Best North African Video , , , - , Best African Dance Video , ,

Discography

Singles

;Non charting single releases *2009: "Inta liya" *2010: "Ya Nasini Ya Habibi" (in

يا ناسيني يا حبيبي) *2010: "Ghaly" (in

غالي) *2014: "Ana Bahwak" (in

أنا بهواك) *2014: "Come Alive" (featuring

) *2015: "Kayna Wla Makaynach" (in

كاينة ولا ماكيناش) *2016: "Tsunami" (in

تسونامي) *2017: "Qahwa" (in

قهوة) *2017: "Sin Tee" featuring Seeya (in

سين تي) *2017: "Insaha" featuring

Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

(in

إنساها) *2018: "Amirah" (in

أميرة) *2019: "Sofia" (in

صوفيا) *2020: “Together We Rise” *2020: “Jawbni Lillah”

جاوبني لله)

Featured in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chawki, Ahmed 1982 births 21st-century Moroccan male singers Living people Moroccan composers Moroccan producers People from Tétouan