''Blessed'' is the debut album by Lebanese-German singer

Fady Maalouf Fady Maalouf ( ar, فادي معلوف pronounced Fādī Maʿlūf; born on 20 April 1979) is a German–Lebanese pop and crossover opera singer. He is known as the runner up of the fifth season of ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'', the Germa ...

. It was released by Columbia Records and Sony BMG on 25 July 2008 in

German-speaking Europe This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe ...

, following his participation in the fifth season of '' Deutschland sucht den Superstar'', the German version of ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'', where he had finished second. Maalouf worked with German producer

Alex Christensen Alex Christensen (born 7 April 1967), also known by his stage names Jasper Forks or Alex C., is a German dance music producer, songwriter, and DJ generally known as the face and one of the founding members of U96. Since 2002, he has been coll ...

on the entire album, while musician such as

Jörgen Elofsson Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter. He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, ...

, Andrew Love, Peer Astrom, Per Eklund,

Lauren Evans Lauren Evans (born February 3, 1983) is an American singer and platinum-selling songwriter. She is an ASCAP Award Winner and has written hit singles for Alexandra Burke, Monrose, Jordin Sparks, and Camila. As a songwriter, Evans has achieved f ...

, Mike Busbee, and Maalouf himself received songwriting credits on ''Blessed''. The album received mixed reviews from critics, with

laut.de laut.de is a German online magazine dealing exclusively with entertainment music, especially pop music, rock music, alternative, metal, hip-hop, jazz and techno. It comprises record reviews, interviews, biographies of important artists, music ...

praising Maaloufs's vocals but criticizing the Christensen's production on the songs. A major commercial success, ''Blessed'' became one of the biggest-charting albums of any ''DSDS'' runner-up, debuting and peaking at number two on the

German Albums Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustr ...

, while reaching number seven in Austria and Germany. Its release was preceded by the same-titled lead single, which became a number two hit on the

German Singles Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...

. A reissue of ''Blessed'', containing several new recordings, was released in November 2008.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References