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Nasri Tony Atweh (Arabic: نصري طوني عطوة, born 10 January 1981),[1] known mononymously as Nasri, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.[2] He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He is the lead vocalist and songwriter for the reggae fusion band, Magic!, a group consisting of fellow Toronto natives, Mark Pellizzer, Alex Tanas, and Ben Spivak. MAGIC!'s single "Rude" became a major international hit single. He is currently managed by Wassim "Sal" Slaiby.
Nasri is also a songwriter and producer, one half of the songwriting and production duo the Messengers. He and Adam Messinger have produced a string of hits for well-known artists, including Justin Bieber, Shakira, Pitbull, Chris Brown, Halsey, and more. In 2012, he earned the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album for his production work on Chris Brown's F.A.M.E.. He also received a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album and the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album for his work on Shakira's El Dorado. His songs "As Long as You Love Me" by Justin Bieber and "Feel This Moment" by Pitbull both made the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.
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Nasri was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, as a child of Palestinian Christian immigrants from Bethlehem.[3][4] and began singing at the age of six.[5] He studied at Senator O'Connor College School, and while attending was part of the school choir as well as extra-curricular sports.[citation needed]
Early career as a solo artist
At age 19, Atweh presented a demo to a local radio station. He then earned a deal with Universal Canada.[6] Two years later in 2002, he won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest with a song he wrote with Adam Messinger.[7] The following year, he released two solo singles through Universal, "Go" and "Ova N' Dun With"․[8]
The songs received some airplay in Canada, and another song titled "Best Friend" was also heard on indie radio in his hometown in 2003. According to the promotional material attached to his single "Go", he was to release an album titled Invisible Walls sometime in 2003 or 2004, but that never materialized.[8] In 2007, he released a song entitled "Click, Click, Click", that would ultimately be covered by the New Kids on the Block.[6][9]
Writing and production with the Messengers
Nasri is part of the writing and production duo the Messengers alongside Adam Messinger.[10][11] He helped drive the reunion of the New Kids on the Block in 2007, and wrote numerous songs for them including his first, "Summertime". Over the course of the following years, Nasri wrote (usually with Messinger) for other major label artists such as Justin Bieber, David Guetta, Shakira, Cody Simpson, Cheryl, Boyzone, JLS, Kat Deluna, Elliott Yamin, Jason Derulo, Akon, Pitbull, Christina Aguilera, Chris Brown, Lana Del Rey, Big Time Rush, Iggy Azalea, Michael Bolton, Peter Andre, JoJo, Jay Sean, Vanessa Hudgens, No Angels, Manafest, and Iyaz.[12]
The Messengers are a Grammy-winning production team. Their work has resulted in two Grammy Award nominations for 2011 Best Pop Vocal Album for Justin Bieber (My World 2.0), 2011 Best Contemporary R&B Album for Chris Brown (Graffiti), and a win for 2012 Best R&B Album for Chris Brown (F.A.M.E.), as well as their collaboration with Justin Bieber / Rascal Flatts in "That Should Be Me" that won a 2011 CMT Music Award for Best Collaborative Video.[12][13][14] He worked on Shakira's El Dorado, which was nominated for Album of the Year in the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards[15] and won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album.[16]
Success with Magic!
While playing music with friend Mark Pellizzer (who played guitar for Justin Nozuka) in 2012, Nasri conceived of Magic!. Mark Pellizzer then recruited Alex Tanas on drums and Ben Spivak on bass.[6] In 2013, Magic! released their highly successful debut single, "Rude", which peaked at number six on the Canadian Hot 100, topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The band is signed to Sony Music Entertainment and partnered with Latium Entertainment in addition to RCA Records in the USA.[12][17]
Their debut album, Don't Kill the Magic, was released in 2014 and charted at number 5 in Canada and at number 6 in the U.S.[12] Their follow-up, Primary Colours, was released in 2016 and third album Expectations in 2018.[18]
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Since 2009, he has been linked romantically with the German singer Sandy Mölling.[19] The two had met while working on the No Angels album Welcome to the Dance. He has a son called Noah with Mölling.[20] Mölling and Atweh were married in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The family resides in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.
As solo artist
Singles
- "Go" (2003)
- "Ova N' Dun With" (2003)
- "Click Click Click" (2007)
- "You Deserve Better" (2012)
along with many other unreleased demos
As member of Magic!
Songwriting and production
| Song name [21][14] |
Primary artist(s) | Album | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Summertime" | 2008 | New Kids on the Block | The Block | Co-writer | US #36[22] |
| "Single" | New Kids on the Block (feat. Ne-Yo) | CAN #42[23] | |||
| "Crawl" | 2009 | Chris Brown | Graffiti | Co-writer, co-producer | US #53[24] |
| "One Life" | No Angels | Welcome to the Dance | Co-writer, co-producer | GER #15[25] | |
| "Derailed" | Co-writer | ||||
| "Dance-Aholic" | |||||
| "Say Goodbye" | |||||
| "Too Old" | |||||
| "Young Love" | |||||
| "Up" | 2010 | Justin Bieber | My World 2.0 | Co-writer, co-producer | |
| "That Should Be Me" | US #92[26] | ||||
| "Pray" | My Worlds Acoustic | US #61[26] | |||
| "Never Say Never" | US #8[26] | ||||
| "Mistletoe" | 2011 | Justin Bieber | Under the Mistletoe | Co-writer, co-producer | US #11[26] |
| "Next to You" | Chris Brown (feat. Justin Bieber) | F.A.M.E. | Co-writer | US #26[26] | |
| "On My Mind" | Cody Simpson | Coast to Coast | Co-writer | US Pop #39[27] | |
| "Feel This Moment" | 2012 | Pitbull (feat. Christina Aguilera) | Global Warming | Co-writer, co-producer | US #8[28] |
| "All Around the World" | Justin Bieber (feat. Ludacris) | Believe | Co-writer | US #22[26] | |
| "As Long as You Love Me" | Justin Bieber (feat. Big Sean) | US #6[26] | |||
| "Don't Judge Me" | Chris Brown | Fortune | Co-writer | US #67[24] | |
| "The Vision of Love" | Kris Allen | Thank You Camellia | Co-writer, co-producer | US Top 40 #29[29] | |
| "We Own the Night" | 2013 | The Wanted | Word of Mouth | Co-writer, co-producer | US #94[30] |
| "Change Your Life" | 2014 | Iggy Azalea (feat. T.I.) | The New Classic | Co-writer, co-producer | UK #10[31] |
| "You Don't Care About Me" | Shakira | Shakira | Co-writer | ||
| "The One Thing" | |||||
| "Cut Me Deep" | Shakira (feat. Magic!) | ||||
| "Can I" | 2017 | Prince Charlez | Evolution Pt. 1 | ||
| "Arms Open" | The Script | Freedom Child | |||
| "Bad News" | SOJA | Poetry in Motion | |||
| "Comme Moi" | Shakira (feat. Black M) | El Dorado | |||
| "What We Said (Comme Moi)" | Shakira (feat. Magic!) | ||||
| "Not Afraid Anymore" | Halsey | Fifty Shades Darker: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | Co-writer, co-producer | US #77[32] | |
| "Flame" | Tinashe | Joyride | Co-writer | ||
| "So Long" | Massari | Beirut | |||
| "High Right Now" | 2019 | Tyla Yaweh | Heart Full of Rage | ||
| "I Cry" | 2020 | Usher | non-album release | Co-writer, co-producer | |
| "Changes" | Justin Bieber | Changes | |||
| "Never Break" | John Legend | Bigger Love | |||
| "Busy Boy" | Chloe x Halle | Ungodly Hour | |||
| "Don't Make It Harder on Me" | Co-writer | ||||
| "A New Day" | 2021 | No Angels | 20 | ||
| "Love You for Eternity" | |||||
| "Hard to Love" | H.E.R. | Back of My Mind | |||
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