Hiba Tawaji

Hiba Michel Tawaji (هبة ميشال طوجي; born 10 December 1987) is a Lebanese singer, actress, and director.

From 1990 and until 2005, Tawaji studied at the Athenee de Beyrouth school and received a literary baccalaureate.

From 2002 until 2007, she took singing lessons and solfeggio at Ecole des Arts Ghassan Yammine.

Since 2008, she has established herself in the Lebanese and Arab music scene with her 4-octave vocal range.

She started her career playing the main female role in Rahbani musicals.

She also participated in the fourth season of France's version of The Voice, in which she was coached by Mika and reached the semi-finals.

In 2008, Tawaji released her first single, "Metl El Rih" (Like the Wind), which received extensive airtime on TV channels across Lebanon.

She cemented her position as a promising newcomer on the musical scene with her acclaimed second single, "Helm" (Dream), to which she directed the music video herself.

Both songs were a product of her collaboration with the Rahbani family.

In the meantime, Tawaji launched her stage career by debuting in 2008 as the protagonist in the musical The Return of the Phoenix by Mansour and Oussama Rahbani, played in Byblos and Dubai, alongside Ghassan Saliba, Antoine Kerbage, and Takla Chamoun.

The following year, she also reprised the main role in the musical Sayf 840 alongside Saliba.

She then went to Saint Joseph University of Beirut, IESAV, and majored in audio-visual and cinematographic studies, earning her B.A. in 2010.

Tawaji also trained in directing and acting.

Between May and July 2010, she took vocal lessons with Emmy Award winner Gwen Conley in New York.

In that same period, she followed a three-month intensive acting workshop at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York.

She returned to Lebanon and appeared in other musicals by the Rahbanis, Don Quixote and Moulouk Al Tawaef.

She obtained her bachelor's degree in 2012 with a short movie written and directed by her, titled The Rope.

It won many prizes in film festivals across the Arab World (ZUMEFF, NDU Film Festival, Outbox Film Festival, etc.).

Singing in French, English, and Arabic, Tawaji was noticed by producers and composers in the Middle East.

Fascinated by the genius of the Rahbani family, she sought to contact Oussama Rahbani who was impressed by her audition and immediately became her producer.

Tawaji has insisted on different occasions that her collaboration with Rahbani is lifelong and that no contract exists to govern their projects together.

In 2012, Tawaji released her first album La Bidayi Wala Nihayi, in collaboration with Oussama Rahbani.

The eponymous single is an Arabic version of "The Windmills of Your Mind" (Les Moulins de mon Coeur) written by Michel Legrand and received considerable airplay in Lebanon and the Arab world, propelling Tawaji to recognition from the public.

The record also contained the songs "Zat Ellafti", with pop influences, and "La Tkelli Ennak Meshtakli" which is reminiscent of Fairuz's music in her later jazzy era with her son Ziad.

Tawaji has also performed in 2013 and 2014 with the National Symphonic Orchestra of Ukraine, headlining shows in Lebanon, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Hiba Tawaji's second album, Ya Habibi, was released in 2014 and was also positively received as it was carried by the singles "Khalas" and "Awwal Ma Cheftou".

The record also comprises Tawaji's version of the song "Helwa ya baladi", first performed by Dalida.

She also released in 2014 the official tribute song to the Lebanese Army on its 69th anniversary, Metl El Chajar Mazrouiin.

After The Voice, she signed with Mercury Records in 2015.

In January 2015, Tawaji took part in the fourth season of The Voice: la plus belle voix, France's version of The Voice.

In the blind auditions, she auditioned with a bilingual version of "La Bidayi Wala Nihayi", leading all four judges to turn their chairs.

Tawaji opted to be in Team Mika.

The blind audition was broadcast on day 3 of the auditions on 24 January 2015.

In the Battles Round, Tawaji faced Nög, another contestant in Mika's team, singing "Mon amie la rose" by Françoise Hardy.

On 30 May 2016, it was announced Tawaji would join the cast of Notre-Dame de Paris as Esmeralda in the revival of the musical.

She has since toured with the cast and performed internationally.

Tawaji has also pursued her Arabic career with four studio albums produced by Oussama Rahbani and numerous projects on the Lebanese and Arab levels, including in Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, where she was the first woman to sing on stage following an easing of restrictions on women's rights.

Tawaji is now signed to Universal Music Arabia, in partnership with Universal Music Group and Republic Records.

Born in Achrafieh, Beirut to Lebanese Orthodox parents Michel and Adele, she grew up in Elissar, a neighborhood of Mazraat Yachouh in the Matn District.

She trained at an early age in opera and classical singing, then in modern style.