Stream my album #SahbetRaey on Deezer App 🎶 Elissa. The entire album is available through Rotana Music’s YouTube.

1. Elissa Derrickson
2. Elissa Drassinower
3. Elissa Sahbit Raey Deezer

Elissa Derrickson

#3 most-streamed Arab singer in MENA on Deezer

Elissa, known among her fans as the “Queen of Romance,” first appeared on the famous Lebanese music competition “Studio Alfan” in 1992. She has collaborated with many brands throughout her career, including Christian Dior and jeweler L’azurde. In 2017, Elissa became the brand ambassador for contact lens company AirOptix Colors and FreshLook. She was also a brand ambassador for Pepsi in the Middle East and appeared in ads with Christina Aguilera. In February 2021, she released the first episode of her new weekly podcast on Anghami.

In 2020, Elissa was the third most-streamed Arab singer in MENA on Deezer, and her album “Sahbit Raey” was the most-streamed album in MENA on the platform. She was also among the top 50 most-streamed Arab singers on Anghami. She has over 3.3 million subscribers on YouTube, with her videos viewed more than 955 million times as of March 25, 2021. Elissa had over 56 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as of the end of 2020, making her the second most followed Arab singer on social media.

Streaming music service deezer is reported to be considering mounting an IPO in about 18 months’ time.

The France-based service is run by Hans-Holger Albrecht and backed financially by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It has some 14 million monthly active users in 185 countries.

Deezer had considered an IPO back in 2015 but dropped the idea. “Going public is an opportunity… it is something that we will consider in the next 12 to 18 months,” Hans-Holger Albrecht told The National newspaper.

In August 2018, deezer secured an investment of 1 billion Saudi riyals (UAE Dirhams 979m) from Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company and Rotana Group in a private placement that valued the company at around $1.10 billion, analysts said at the time. More than 100 Arabic artists are signed to Rotana, including major stars Mohammed Abdo, Elissa and Asallah.

Deezer has various pricing plans with an ad-supported ‘Flow’ version being free for a limited/test period, then a Premium version at $9.99 and a top-of-the-range Elite version at $14.99.

Elissa Drassinower

“We know financial markets love music streaming companies as you saw in the case of Spotify [which went public with $26.5 billion valuation in April 2018]. As a company, we are of the right size… we will raise an IPO, if everything goes well,” said Albrecht, without disclosing further details.

Deezer was first launched in France in 2007 and entered the MENA region last year and is now aiming for 4 million subscribers coming out of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

As a result of its new MENA focus it is creating locally produced comedy shows, podcasts and talk-shows out of a new production facility in the region.

Elissa Sahbit Raey Deezer

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