Artist Profiles: Ibrahim Maalouf

Ibrahim Maalouf was born November 5, 1980 in Beirut, Lebanon. He left Lebanon as a child and grew up in France.

Maalouf  is internationally-renowned composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player. He is a prominent instrumentalist in the French music scene, with a considerable body of work.

When he was merely twenty years old, Ibrahim won several important international classical music competitions and began his career as a classical musician.

In the early 2000s, he made became a noteworthy musician in the pop, jazz, and world music scenes, as confirmed by his high-charting singles and albums. Throughout his career, he has performed for a wide range of artists such as Sting, Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Lhasa de Sela and many more.

Since 2007, Ibrahim has produced, composed, arranged, and recorded numerous albums, composed more than ten classical symphonic works, and created original scores for several films. Ibrahim remains a top-selling instrumentalist in France, Europe, and Middle East, and after performing for more than 1,000 concerts and five world tours, he became the first jazz artist in history to sell out France’s largest concert hall, the AccorHotels Arena in Paris-Bercy.

In addition to setting performance records, Ibrahim won four Victoires de la Musique awards in France; the ECHO Jazz Award in Germany in 2016; was nominated twice for Best Original Music for the César Awards; and won the César Award, along with the Lumières Award for In The Forests of Siberia in 2017.

He was also awarded the honorary titles of Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite and Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French government.

In 2019, Ibrahim composed three film soundtracks. He went on a summer tour of France with the Balkan brass band Haïdouti Orkestar before performing at the Olympia (Paris) on 23, 24 and 25 September and touring the rest of Europe from early fall to coincide with the release of his 11th studio album S3NS.

In 2022, Maalouf released an album with Beninese world music star Angelique Kidjo.

Ever-prolific, Maalouf released two albums in 2024, Paris In Love, in July, and Trumpets of Michel-Ange in October. Paris In Love was recorded at his sold-out concert in November 2023 at the Accor Arena, the biggest in France. The three-hour concert for 17,000 fans was a celebration of his greatest hits and GRAMMY-nominated album Capacity To Love, and featured special guests including Austin Brown (Michael Jackson’s nephew), Sheléa, D Smoke, Matthieu Chedid, Benjamin Epps, Sly Johnson, Dear Silas, Flavia Coelho and French hip hop performers IAM and Oxmo Puccino.

Meanwhile, Trumpets of Michel-Ange celebrates Maalouf’s Lebanese roots and features collaborations with world music and jazz artists.

Discography:

Diasporas (Mi’ster Productions, 2007)
Diachronism (Mi’ster Productions, 2009)
Diagnostic (Mi’ster Productions, 2011)
Wind (Mi’ster Productions, 2012)
Illusions (Mi’ster Productions, 2013)
Yves Saint Laurent, soundtrack (Sony, 2014)
Red & Black Light (Mi’ster Productions, 2015)
Kalthoum (Mi’ster Productions, 2015)
10 ans de live! (Mi’ster Productions, 2016)
Dans Les Forets De Siberie, soundtrack (Mi’ster Productions, 2016)
Dalida (Barclay, 2017)
Levantine Symphony N°1 (Mi’ster Productions, 2018)
S3NS (2019)
Une Belle Équipe, soundtrack (Mi’ster Productions, 2020)
40 Melodies (2020)
First Noel (Mister Ibe, 2021)
Queen of Sheba, with Angelique Kidjo (Mi’ster Productions, 2022)
Capacity To Love (Mi’ster Productions, 2022)
Paris in love (2024)
Trumpets Of Michel-Ange (Mister Ibe, 2024)

[headline image: Ibrahim Maalouf – Photo by Yann Orhan]

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.