Mohammed Marwan Baaseery ( born 16 August 1980 ), known as Iwan is a Lebanese singer of Lebanese and Syrian origin. He started his musical career as a songwriter by composing music for other artists. In 2003, Iwan started his own solo singer, enjoying widespread success in the Middle East and introduced Iwan to the Arabic public as a talented singer. He has released three albums: the debut Alby Sahran (2004) and Ergaa Leya (2007) and Ya 100 Nawart (2017)
Personal life
Iwan was born on August 16, 1980, in Saida, Lebanon. He is the eldest son of his Lebanese father Marwan Baassiri and his Syrian mother Dahouk. He has two brothers, Mazen and Haitham and one sister, Rasha. Iwan holds a degree in Hotel Management from the Lebanese University. It was said that he is also preparing for his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Iwan got married in secret in 2008 and got divorced at the end of 2009 and refused to talk about this subject with the media.
He shares his birthday with American pop icon Madonna and it is said that he is a huge fan. He performed a cover version of "Justify My Love" in concert in Beirut in 2013 which sparked controversy.
About
Musical Career
Iwan started singing at school and university. After performing his military service, he started composing songs for other singers like Bassima, Fares Karam, Carole Samaha, Reeda, Ghadi, Nisreen, Maria, and Noura Rahal.
Later in 2003, he wrote the lyrics of his first song, “Oul Inshallah”, which is the remake of “Deste Mou Ta Matia” by the Greek singer Despina Vandi. Then he shot his first video clip for this song with the Lebanese director Walid Nassif. The song became one of the biggest hits in the Middle East. In that year Iwan was introduced as a new image in the Arab pop scene.
In 2004, Iwan released his second single, "Zanby Ehi", the song was written and composed by Iwan himself and increased his success especially in Egypt. later in November 2004, he released his debut Alby Sahran with two singles from it, "Alby Sahran" and "Ahlan Wa Sahlan". Iwan won the platinum record for the sales of this album, and won at the same year the Arabian Music Awards that was held in Dubai for the best new Arab male artist over all.
In 2006, Iwan released two single "Wala fil Ahlam" and "Libnani" which was written and composed by Iwan himself. The songs where directed by Jad Shwery, and made a success especially "Libnani" which was released after the 2006 war in Beirut. The song and its clip were about the beauty of Lebanon's nature, culture and musical icons.
In August 2007, Iwan's second album was released, titled Erga' Leya and few weeks later, a video of the album's first single "Khadtaha", directed by Yehia Saadeh, was released exclusively on Melody Music channels. The clip was a big success but the song did not make the same impact compared to his previous songs.
In 2008, he released a single with Amal Hijazi called "Khalina Neoul", which became a quick hit in Lebanon and other Arabic countries.
In 2009, Iwan starred his first movie, Haflet Zefaf, which was released in summer of 2009
In March 2010, Melody released a single by Iwan, titled "Akbar Kizabeh". the song was composed by Iwan and it was a success.
In 2011 Iwan released "Ashofak" which was sung in The Khaleeji Dialect for the first time by Iwan ,and at the end of 2011 he released another single called "Adini Ganbak" sung in the Egyptian Dialect. After a few months in 2012 he left melody records.
In 2014 iwan released a new single titled "Maghayer Alaya" written by Iwan.
In February 2015 he released "Saet Safa" which was an Islamic song and Iwan's first religious single and it was Iwan's first time working with Mazzika.
In Ramadan 2016 Iwan Released "Al Akaber" which was the theme song for the Tunisian drama Al Akaber.
In November 2017 after an absence of almost ten years from releasing studio albums, Iwan Released his third studio album called Ya 100 Nawart with Mazzika also known as Alam El Phan. The first single was released in February 2017 during valentine's Day which was called "Yaez Alaya". He has released 3 music videos from Ya 100 Nawart: 1) "Aweya" which has gained more than 1 million views and is a hit and it was shot in Athens Greece. 2) "Ala Elbal Youmati" was released during Christmas 2017. 3) "Ya 100 Nawart" music video which was released in March 2018 directed by Jean saad.
In 2019 Iwan released three more music videos "Baftekar El Kheir", "Atalny Rado" And "Yaez Alaya" From Ya 100 Nawart Album. Later in November 2019, Iwan released a duo with Mira Mikhael called "Ya Henni Ya Nehna" which was released during the Lebanese October Revolution in 2019.