Shatha Hassoun is a Moroccan-Iraqi singer and actress, born in Casablanca to an Iraqi journalist father from Hillah and a Moroccan history teacher mother from Safi. She won the fourth season of Star Academy Arab World in 2007 and became the first woman to take that title. Her label is Rotana Music Group, and her résumé also lists songwriting and dance.
She studied English Literature in Casablanca and continued into hotel and tourism management in Tangier. A master's degree in France followed. She performs in six languages and holds two Murex d'Or awards, from 2007 and 2009. The DG Festival and the Art Festival both named her a top female newcomer in 2008. Music fans in the Arab world call her the daughter of Mesopotamia.
Shatha Hassoun Took Her Own Road to the Stage
Here's the fun part of her story. The stage was calling her as a teenager, and she answered by finishing as runner-up in a Moroccan singing competition called Stars and Stars. Arab Super Star came next, and she reached the second stage in season two. After France she returned to Morocco and spent a stretch working at one of the country's large hotels, using her degree. Every step was her own choice, and the singing kept going.
Then came Star Academy, and a childhood dream got its chance. In 2007 she said she had always wanted to represent Iraq in the arts. That spirit is the heart of Frank Sinatra's 1969 classic My Way, a song about living fully and choosing your own road. Fifty-seven years after its release, that message still speaks to Shatha, and her story shows why.
A Night That Iraq Celebrated from North to South
In December there were nineteen contestants from around the Arab world, and by the finale Shatha was one of four finalists. Her performance of Fairouz's Baghdad earned 54.8 percent of the vote and sent her to the final. On the last night she won 40.63 percent of the public vote.
Shatha rushed the stage in a blue sequin dress under flying confetti, then fell to her knees in tears, the Iraqi flag draped around her shoulders. That picture became an icon of Iraq itself. Shortly after her win she told Iraq's al-Sharqiya television, "I thank Baghdad and I thank Iraq." The prize package was US$50,000 and an SUV.
Votes poured in by cell phone from Basra University to Kurdistan. Around one in four Iraqis reportedly voted for her. In Erbil, thousands packed a shopping mall courtyard to chant her name. Sunni and Shiite communities both claimed her as their own. A whole country cheered a woman who chose her own road.
Songs That Became Gifts to a Nation
Her first single, Rooh, came out soon after the win. Nikola Saada wrote and composed it, and it debuted at number one on Rotana's Pepsi Top 20 chart, the first song ever to do that. It held the top spot for two weeks and reached number one again later.
Then came Asmallah Asmallah, also called Ebin Bladi. Iraqi poet Karim Al Iraqi wrote and composed it as a gift to the Iraqi people and to the national football team that won the 2007 Asian Cup. It has been described as a sort of second national anthem for Iraq.
She revived traditional Iraqi songs in duets alongside Ilham al-Madfai, including Allela 7elowa and Aleik As'al. Lo Alf Marra was the first song Melhem Barakat composed for a non-Lebanese artist. Marwan Khoury wrote Oushaq, and her collaborators include George Wassouf and Ramy Ayach. Every song was an artistic choice, and her name on them was earned.
Shatha Hassoun Keeps Filling Stages and Screens
In Ramadan 2008 she acted in the series Rasael Men Ragol Mayet, or Letters from a Dead Man, alongside Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud. It was filmed in Syria and broadcast on Al-Baghdadia TV. In late July 2009 she traveled to Baghdad for two big charity concerts for the children of Iraq. Her tours have reached North America and Sweden, and stages from Lebanon to Kuwait.
In June 2025 she returned to the Moroccan stage after twelve years for the 20th Mawazine Festival in Rabat. Her set of roughly two dozen songs mixed classics and new releases. She praised the Moroccan crowd as devoted fans of fine music and called them the children of her own country. She also said Morocco has hosted some of her beautiful concerts, and she offered a Moroccan-Eastern blend.
Recently, Shatha also released the first song from a new album titled Enta, which means You in Arabic. The remaining songs were due in the coming weeks.
Why My Way Belongs to Her Story
Frank Sinatra's My Way celebrates a life lived to the fullest and every choice owned. Shatha's story gives that message a face. A teenager took her voice to competitions. A student pursued literature, hotel management and a master's degree. A daughter of two countries said yes to Iraq, and Iraq said yes back. A singer returned to the Mawazine stage in Morocco and released a new album.
Every chapter has one signature, and it is her own. That is the empowering lesson. The message lives on in a woman who turned a childhood dream into a life of music, and new songs keep coming. Choose your road, put in the work, and sing it your way.
