Essam

Essam (2018)

**Essam Yahya** (Arabic: **عصام يحيى**; born December 15, 1980) - is a Canadian singer.

## Biography

### Early Life

Essam Yahya was born on December 15, 1980 in Laval, Quebec. His parents, Waseem and Halima (née Saleh) are both of of Lebanese ancestry. His father was born in Beirut, and his mother was born in Laval to a parents from Lebanon. He is the eldest of four children, with one sisters and two brothers, all of them were raised bilingual, they were talking to their father in Arabic and to mother in French. He learned English himself when he was a teenager. When he was two, family moved to Quebec City, where he later attended Quebec High School. His father left family when he was eleven. When he was thirteen, his then thirty-three years old mother married twelve years her senior Greek-Canadian businessman Evangelos Pappas, their daughter, Era, was born on September 6, 1993. Evangelos died in 2000, aged 52, and a will of over $10 million signed to Halima and her children, Era was his only child, his former wife was barren and died three years after their marriage. On month after his death, Essam tattooed Evangelos' name in Greek on his arm. Essam describes Evangelos as amazing, supporting and loving man. His biological father, never remarried and had no more children, but was in several relationships, he died in 2003, aged fourty three by alcohol poisoning. His mother afer Evangelos' death fall into depression, but thanks to psychologist was cured of it. In one of the interviews, Essam stated that Evangelos was often singing and playing guitar and thanks to him he discovered his talent to music. He wrote his first song, which was in Greek, when he was fifteen.

### Career

He started his musical career in 2001-2002. Yahya released his first song ''Fall from the Waterfall'' in June 2002, song was aired on radio stations. After three years of preparations, he released a self-titled album *Essam* on Quebec Records. His first album resulted in five singles, and was popular in Canada, Western Europe and Middle East. On his albums, he had songs in English, French and Arabic. Two of songs on album, ''Arm'' and ''Arabian Streets'' cracked the Canadian Top 10, and also succesfully charted on lists in United Kingdom, Ireland and France. During 2008, he released two tracks from the forthcoming album, ''Free Wings'' and ''Internet Line''. The album, *Friday Morning* was released on October 7, 2008. In May 2011, he announced that he will be releasing album full in Arabic entitled *Tharwa*, which is Arabic for wealth. Album was released on December 19, 2011. On August 4, 2015, he released EP, *Let's Keep Lucky Days*, which included four songs, one in French and English, two in English, and one in Arabic and French. On March 28, 2017, Essam released a brand new song, ''Code to Happiness'', together with singer Graciela Montes. In late August 2021, he announced that he is working on fourth album, which will be released in January 2022.

### Personal Life

In May 2011, he started dating singer Zakayah Sarfati. They first met in March 2009. Yahya engaged to her in August 2014. They wed on February 21, 2016 in a ceremony held in Monte Carlo. Together, they have three children, two sons, Ilyas (born March 7, 2014) and Salil (born June 27, 2017) and daughter Yara (born December 22, 2020). He resides in centre of Quebec City.