{"id":24523,"date":"2017-10-20T10:37:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T09:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=24523"},"modified":"2017-10-20T10:47:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T09:47:47","slug":"conversation-maher-zain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/20\/conversation-maher-zain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"IN CONVERSATION WITH MAHER ZAIN FULL INTERVIEW!"},"content":{"rendered":"

IN CONVERSATION WITH MAHER ZAIN #1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maher Zain has teamed up with humanitarian charity Penny Appeal to undertake his biggest ever UK tour this October. British actor and comedian Abdullah Afzal took the chance to ask him a few questions as he stopped by the UK in the run-up to the events<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

AA: How are you finding the UK?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Great! Always happy to be here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the responsibility of fame<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: A lot of young Muslims see you as their inspiration. Is it a lot of weight on your shoulders?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: It\u2019s definitely a responsibility and I\u2019m aware of it. The main thing is to be yourself; people appreciate when you are yourself, off stage and on stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the charity cause<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: The tour is in aid of Penny Appeal\u2019s Education First programme, to help girls in developing countries to go to school. Why is this close to your heart?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: When I was young I took my years at school for granted. Now I miss those days, when I was free to learn without other responsibilities. It was fun, even though there were hard times. It\u2019s very important to emphasise that. We want to inspire the youngsters to really take advantage of those years and not take them for granted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On being stranded on a desert island<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: If you were stuck on a desert island and you could take one person with you, eat only one meal and listen to only one song, what would those three things be?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: One person would be my wife, has to be. The meal would be chicken curry and I\u2019d probably create a new song.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On becoming a singer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: Did you always want to be a singer when you were younger?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: No, absolutely not. I didn\u2019t even know I could sing until I started in 2009. I used to work as a music producer, and I would only sing the songs as a demo. A lot of artists have been singing since they were a child, but I still don\u2019t find it natural for me to sing. I\u2019m still learning and I\u2019m taking lessons, because I think I can do more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On finding your talent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: What advice would you give someone looking to follow in your footsteps?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: I think with anything that you would like to do, you need to be honest with yourself first of all. Am I good at this thing that I\u2019m looking to do? Don\u2019t waste time on something that you won\u2019t be successful at.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone has something that they\u2019re really good at. It can be anything! Maybe you\u2019re really good at talking \u2013 maybe you can do a talk show or be on the radio. Identify that talent and that goal in you, and be honest with yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On performing in front of the Swedish Royal Family<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: You recently performed at the Swedish National Day celebrations. What was that like for you?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: It was amazing, I really enjoyed it. We had the band of the Swedish Army, a huge orchestra, and we sang a song called \u2018Hey Brothers, Hey Sisters\u2019. The King, the Royal Family were all in front of me, all the politicians and leaders and my family was<\/strong> there as well \u2013 it was amazing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the universal nature of music <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: What influences you when you\u2019re writing a song?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Music is a language. As human beings<\/strong>\u00a0we have feelings, different moods, different timings. Sometimes you feel sad, sometimes you feel like you want to be uplifted, sometimes we\u2019re just happy and we don\u2019t want anything to bring us down.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you write music it\u2019s also about that inspiration. When you write a melody and lyrics, you keep asking yourself, what mood am I in now? Music speaks to you. I love music, and the sound of music. I love Turkish music for example, and it\u2019s such an emotional experience for me, even if I don\u2019t understand the lyrics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The debut tour of Maher Zain\u2019s latest album \u2018One\u2019 takes place in October this year, spanning 10 locations in the UK. Tickets are available now from Penny Appeal\u2019s website.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

————————————————————————————————————————<\/em><\/p>\n

IN CONVERSATION WITH MAHER ZAIN #2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humanitarian aid charity Penny Appeal and Maher Zain have teamed up to organise the musician\u2019s biggest ever UK tour this October. Actor and comedian Abdullah Afzal was in conversation with him, in the prelude to his latest tour.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

AA: How are you finding the UK?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Great! Always happy to be here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On performing in the UK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: What\u2019s been your favourite performance in the UK?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: I\u2019m not just saying this because I\u2019m in the UK and my upcoming tour is in the UK, but the tours that I\u2019ve had here have probably been the best out of all the ones I\u2019ve done. It was so much fun. It\u2019s hard to pick one, because I\u2019ve always enjoyed performing for the UK public. I\u2019m really looking forward to the next tour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On leisure time<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: Everyone knows that Maher Zain loves to sing, but what do you do in your own time?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: I travel a lot, so I like to spend time with my family as much as I can. I like fishing and sports \u2013 I work out a lot and try to maintain my health as much as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On sports<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: Are you a football fan?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Not really, I wish! I try, my friends like to sit down and watch it, but I just don\u2019t get it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

AA: What kind of sports are you into then?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: You won\u2019t believe it but I love MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), I\u2019m a big fan. I practice it a little bit, I think it\u2019s a fun workout.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On his audience <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: You seem to have tapped into a market where your music is universal, enjoyed by people young and old across the world. How have you managed to do that?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Music is an international language. It speaks to you even when you don\u2019t understand the lyrics. People can relate to a slow song, a ballad, an emotional song, a happy<\/strong> song, because it\u2019s an emotional experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So when you write music it\u2019s about that inspiration. You ask yourself, what mood are you in right now? Even if people don\u2019t understand the words, they can understand the feelings behind a song.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Nasheed <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: What advice would you give for people who want to get into Nasheed?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: Music is a hard business, you need people who support you. You shouldn\u2019t go into it unless you\u2019re very committed. There\u2019s a hadith that says that Allah loves it when someone does the best that they can do at<\/strong>a\u00a0something, and he will perfect it. So identify your talent and just work hard, because nothing will come without working hard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On learning to sing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

AA: Did you always want to be a singer when you were younger?<\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: I didn\u2019t even know I could sing until I started in 2009. I still don\u2019t find it natural for me to sing, I think I can do more. I\u2019m taking lessons you know!<\/strong><\/p>\n

On girls\u2019 education <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

MZ: So the tour is raising money to give disadvantaged girls an education. Why is this cause so close to your heart?<\/strong><\/p>\n

MZ: Education is very important, especially if you\u2019re young because those years are so critical, they will form your future and your personality. Everything you do in these young years is so important.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Insha\u2019Allah we shall get some youngsters, especially girls, inspired and take care of their education.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The debut tour of Maher Zain\u2019s latest album \u2018One\u2019 takes place in October this year, spanning 10 locations in the UK. Tickets are available now from Penny Appeal\u2019s website.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IN CONVERSATION WITH MAHER ZAIN #1 Maher Zain has teamed up with humanitarian charity Penny Appeal to undertake his biggest ever UK tour this October. British actor and comedian Abdullah Afzal took the chance to ask him a few questions as he stopped by the UK in the run-up to the events AA: How are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,108,401,72,107],"tags":[440,441,439],"class_list":["post-24523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desixpress","category-dx-interviews","category-entertainment","category-interviews","category-music","tag-in-conversation-with-maher-zain","tag-maher-zain","tag-maher-zain-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}