Over her career she has had multiple Billboard | MediabaseTop 40 hits, but has notably achieved four U.S. Top 40 consecutive chart appearances with singles successively released since late 2025.[3]
Known for her high energy and charismatic performances,[4] Shab's music demonstrates her focus upon individual liberties and global women's rights.[2] Co-composing almost all of the songs in her discography, she draws heavily for the lyrical and emotional content of her music from her experiences as a refugee as well as celebrates the gradual transformation of her psycho-emotional mindset ingrained by her Iranian upbringing in favor of Western concepts of citizenship, womanhood and female identity|esteem.[5][6]
Shab has also emerged in recent years as a leading and outspoken Persian-American dissident across U.S. & British media in opposition to the current Fundamentalist regime in Iran.[7][8][9][10][11]
Early life
Shab with family membersShab's birthday with family in Tehran
After the Iranian Revolution, her royalist family immediately faced extended political persecution by the newly-empowered Fundamentalist regime in Tehran. Consequently, Shab's father died at the age 52 from a heart attack resulting from such institutionalized and abusing targeting of his family. But after eight years, her widowed mother -- dispossessed by Iranian authorities of the family's wherewithal -- was able nonetheless to arrange for her family to escape Iran.[1][5][11][13]
Following a stopover in Turkey, the remainder of her family incrementally relocated to the United States as political refugees,[13] but during the interim Shab was harbored by a sympathetic boarding elementary school in Kassel, Germany. She was separated from her entire family for more than four years[13][14] and until her political asylum application was finally approved in the United States, at which time Shab was soon reunited with her family in the greater Baltimore area.[2]
Shab began creating music in her native Farsi while attending law school, but did not begin recording until 2018, when she released her first tracks in Farsi (including the Farsi-English single "Love You") under her given name, Shabnam.[16]
During late 2018, she shifted primarily to English-language songwriting and began collaborating with Grammy-winning producer Damon Sharpe,[17] with their initial creations being "Down To The Wire"[18] and "Spell On Me"[19][20][21] (the latter track being Shab's first co-written with Sharpe and Eric Sanicola). "Spell On Me" went on to chart at Number One on the Global Digital Music Chart and Number Two on the British Commercial Pop Club Chart in the United Kingdom.[22]
Both songs were included among eight tracks, including six co-written between Shab and Sharpe, on her early 2021 debut English-language album, Infinite Love (released on 12 February 2021 and including a cover version of Depeche Mode's original composition, "Halo").[23][24]
Music career: 2022–2024 (including Infinite Love)
Over 2022 to 2024, Shab issued several more singles co-composed with Sharpe, notably including "Serenity" (with a video featuring English actor Harry Goodwins)[25] "Criss Cross"[26] and "Indestructible,"[27] but further released a cover of "Sexual (Li Da Di)" (originally sung by the Dutch pop singer Amber).[28][29]
During this period, Shab also collaborated with rapper Fat Joe on "Voodoo" (an amalgam of the rhythms from Terror Squad’s "Lean Back" and the lyrics from Shab's "Spell on Me"),[30] which track earned her first career Top 40 hit on the U.S. Rhythmic and Pop charts.[31][32]
Music career: 2025–present (including One Suitcase)
One Suitcase album coverSHAB from her Swerve video shoot (2025)
On 12 February 2025, Shab released her second studio album, One Suitcase, having co-composed all of its tracks while working alongside her longtime songwriting partner Sharpe as well as producers Dallas Austin, RoccStar, Eric Zayne and Remi Rafael.[2] The album was mixed and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Trevor Muzzy.
The double album of 21 songs was critically-acclaimed, being characterized by Rolling Stone magazine as "a compelling collection of songs that flow seamlessly between upbeat anthems and introspective moments"[31] and by Ireland's Hot Press as reflecting "[a] spirit of female liberation through club-ready hits and out-and-out pop songs with an intriguing skeletal undercarriage."[15]
From the One Suitcase album, Shab released as singles the tracks "Swerve,"[33] "Afterglow,"[34] "Say It With Your Chest,"[35] "Dance Til You're Free" (a call to action for women's empowerment in Iran & globally)[36] and "Lipstick."[37] Each of these single releases were accompanied official music videos orchestrated by Shab's longtime Creative Co-Directors, video director Eli Sokhn and famed choreographer Richy Jackson, that went into regular rotation at MTV and other video streaming services.[38]
Since the release of One Suitcase, Shab has posted four consecutive single releases onto the U.S. radio Top 40 charts,[3] with "Lipstick" having reached such milestone during late 2025 and thereafter with all of "Skin & Bones" (originally written during 2021 in the aftermath of a catastrophic car crash involving her longtime partner),[39][40] "It's On You"[41] and "Perfume"[42] ascending to the Top 40 charts during 2026.[3]
Performance and touring
Shab & Music Director Mike Manning in concert (2021)Shab Euro Tour 2022 T-shirt with venues listedShab in concert (2025)Shab with dancers in concert (2025)
While Shab had Farsi-language appearances over 2019-2020, her first English language performance was an October 2021 fundraising benefit concert for the Dallas-based Hope Supply Co. charitable organization.[43][44] Aside from being her debut English show, this event was also the first time in concert that Shab worked with her own band of musicians (featuring her Music Director, Mike Manning, previously the long-term guitar for pop singer Demi Lovato)[45] as well as delivered a performance featuring commissioned choreography design.[46]
During late 2025, Shab completed her first U.S. coast-to-coast national tour together with the British band The Wanted, during which she earned a rave Yahoo News review[4] in regard to her final tour stop performance in Manhattan:
"Her performance style combined Jennifer Lopez's show-stopping confidence with Shakira's hypnotic rhythm and fluid grace, every move charged with emotion and intent.... [Shab's] sound and stage presence channeled the golden era of early-2000s pop divas, evoking Christina Aguilera's fire and Britney Spears' Toxic-era edge -- especially during her fierce, flirtatious performances of 'Say It With Your Chest,' 'Sexual,' and 'Lipstick.' The crowd responded in kind, singing, dancing and cheering as if watching a global superstar in the making."
—Viki Waters, BANG Showbiz, Yahoo News (17 October 2025)
The leadership of her SHAB Squad team within her Shabnam Music label has been headed since 2021 by her "BrainTrust" of co-Manager Damon Sharpe, Creative Co-Directors Richy Jackson & Eli Sokhn, Musical Director Mike Manning and Branding & Digital Strategist Donna Valdes.[52]
The Los Angeles & Manhattan offices of the Miller PR public relations firm oversee publicity for her label. Commercial Entertainments PLC in Britain is charged with tour placement and arrangement, while tour & social media management for Shab and her label are provided by DXDTours of Britain. Sync relationships for Shab's catalog are administered by MAKESOUND, a boutique music and audio post-production firm based in Los Angeles.[53]
Personal life: philanthropy and advocacy
Shab with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi & Princess Noor (2025)Shab in Jamaican fitness photoshoot for Black Tape Project (2023)Shab in leopard print DropTrou offering (2025)
Shab fluently speaks Farsi, German and English as a result of her multi-continental upbringing.[13] She became an American citizen during 1997 and lives primarily in Dallas with her two young children and her partner (who is highly involved in her career).[2]
In addition to being a fitness fanatic, Shab's other primary personal interests encompass women's issues, motherhood and fashion design. During 2025, she leveraged her fitness, performance and fashion proclivities to found her own jumpsuit line, DropTrou.[54]
Arising out of her experience with Islamic extremism during her formative years, through her music SHAB stands as an impassioned advocate for women's empowerment both in Iran and globally.[2] A staunch supporter of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, Shab has also emerged as a leading Persian-American dissident in opposition to what she labels the "Gangster Regime" of the Shia theocracy in Iran[7][8] and has repeatedly appeared on U.S. national & local television news for her commentary regarding Iranian socio-political developments.[5][9][10][11]
She actively supports charities echoing her individual values, including Hope Supply Co.,[43] a not-for-profit organization in Dallas that serves the needs of north Texas homeless children (with which Shab & her partner are heavily involved, including her 2022 fundraiser concert),[46][44] and Choose Love, a London-based aid agency serving the needs of refugees internationally (which named SHAB a Global Ambassador during late 2024 and to which she has donated all individual proceeds from sales of the One Suitcase album).[4][55]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
