Raef Haggag ( ar, رائف حجاج; born August 8, 1982) is an

Egyptian-American Egyptian Americans are Americans of partial or full Egyptian ancestry. The 2016 US Census estimated the number of people with Egyptian ancestry at 256,000. Most of whom are from Egypt's Christian Coptic minority.Estimates for the number of Cop ...

singer.

Beginnings

Raef picked up playing guitar during his time at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

where he studied computer science. After graduation, Raef worked briefly as a software engineer before leaving to teach high school for eight years. As he says: "I decided to switch careers from a software eng. to a high school teacher because I wanted to help others in a more direct way (and because it was pretty boring sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day)". Raef taught

computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...

in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Music career

Teaching gave Raef more time to focus on songwriting, often performing at local coffee shops and busking at metro stations. He was introduced to the national stage after his trio

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band "Great Seneca" toured the United States of America as part of the "Voices for Change" initiative. Raef also joined the "Poetic Vision Tour"; a band of traveling musicians and poets catering to the American

Muslim community ' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history. It is a synonym for ' ...

. Raef did several Muslim-themed covers of popular mainstream songs, attracting young listeners wanting a modern take on religious music Raef signed with

Awakening Records Awakening Music (previously known as Awakening Records) is a British-based Islamic faith-inspired music production company. It was created in 2000 by four British and American entrepreneurs. Albums produced by Awakening Music ;Live albums ...

and released his debut album ''The Path'' in 2014. In the summer of 2019 he released his second album ''Mercy'' with a notable shift towards rock and country music.

Success in Indonesia

Since the release of his debut album ''The Path'', Raef has made several trips to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

to promote his music and perform at live concerts. Appearing on Indonesian national television and invited by

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

mayor

Ridwan Kamil Mochamad Ridwan Kamil (born 4 October 1971) is an Indonesian architect and politician who is the 15th Governor of West Java, the most populous province of Indonesia. He was also the mayor of Bandung from 2013 to 2018. As an architect, he design ...

to perform at the Bandung Conference brought Raef and his music to millions of Indonesians. Raef was also the star host on 30 episodes of ''The Journey of a Backpacker'', a Ramadan TV series that aired on

Kompas TV Kompas TV is a national terrestrial private news television network in Indonesia. It is owned by the KG Media unit of Kompas Gramedia Group and is named after its flagship property, the ''Kompas'' daily newspaper. Kompas TV was founded in ar ...

(later

Trans7 Trans7 (pronounced ''Trans Tujuh'' in Indonesian, formerly known as TV7) is an Indonesian free-to-air television network owned by Trans Media, a part of Trans Corp, which in turn a subsidiary of CT Corp. For the first time, Trans7 was the officia ...

) across Indonesia and

TV Alhijrah TV AlHijrah is a state-owned Malaysian free-to-air Islamic television channel, owned and operated by Al-Hijrah Media Corporation, a company under the purview of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia of the Prime Minister's Department. ...

in Malaysia. In August 2015, Raef was awarded the "Platinum Award" for record sales in Indonesia. Following the blueprint of Season 1 of "The Journey of a Backpacker", Raef hosted Season 2, airing on

, in which he traveled across

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, visiting 30 historic and iconic mosques.

"We Are Home" music video project

Using Detroit-based

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

platform LaunchGood, over $22,000 via online donations were raised to fund the music video for "Home," directed by Los-Angeles based director, Lena Khan. The video shows Raef walking through

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

observing contributions made by various immigrants to the United States. The video also features contributions made by Native Americans.

"Dear America" music video project

In his second crowdfunded music video project, Raef raised over $15,000 to fund the music video for "Dear America," directed by Washington DC based film director, Anas Tolba. The video shows clips of Americans across the spectrum experiencing a shared pain, highlighting "the reality of persistent injustices and divisions that are ripping our country apart". "Dear America" won several awards, including New York Movie Award's "Best Music Video"

Philanthropy

Send a little hope, UK tour, London, April 2012

* On 14 April 2012, Raef took part in "Send a Little Hope" charity concert organized by Awakening Records and Save an Orphan organization at London's

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ham ...

with

Hamza Namira Hamza Namira ( ar, حمزة نمرة) is an Egyptian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has released three albums from the production of Awakening Records: ''Dream With Me'', ''Insan'', ''Esmaani;'' and a couple of albums from Nami ...

Irfan Makki Irfan Makki ( ur, عرفان مکی; born October 30, 1975) is a Pakistani Canadian Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider th ...

Maher Zain Maher Zain ( ar, ماهر زين; born 16 July 1981) is a Lebanese- Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer. He released his debut album '' Thank You Allah'', an internationally successful album produced by Awakening Records, in 200 ...

and

Mesut Kurtis Mesut is a Turkish given name for males, derived from the Arabic name Masoud. People named Mesut include: * Mesut of Menteşe (died 1319), Turkish bey * Mesut Bakkal (born 1964), Turkish football manager * Mesut Cemil (1902–1963), Turkish co ...

to raise awareness and collect donations. Over £175,000 were pledged on the night.

Discography

Albums

Videography

References

External links

*
Raef page on Awakening Records website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raef 1982 births Living people American Muslims American people of Egyptian descent American singer-songwriters Performers of Islamic music Awakening Music artists 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers Rotana Records artists Universal Music Group artists American male singer-songwriters