Nader Qerat

Nader Guirat (; Arabic: نادر قيراط; pronounced [ˈnɛːder ɡiːrˤɑːtˤ]; born May 16, 1986) is a Tunisian pop rock singer-songwriter and musician who won the title of Star Academy Arab World on the 5th season of the reality talent show. His performances were noted for their inclusion of a repertoire of songs interpreting varied genres of Pop, Rock, House, and acoustic in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and Italian. He sang Tina Arena, Chris De Burgh, Alessandro Safina, Cheb Khaled, Akram Sedkaoui, Amel Bent, Nadia, Yves Larock, Karl Wolf, Massari and Hot Banditoz. Nader Guirat was born on May 16, 1986, in the coastal city of Sousse, in Tunisia, to Nejib Guirat, a business man and Raoudha Boukthir. The eldest child of the couple, his younger siblings are sister Nahed and brother Zied. Guirat first public performance was at the age of five in nursery school, where he performed songs of late veteran Egyptian singer Abdul Halim Hafiz. In an interview with a local Tunisian magazine Le Temps, Nader describes when he first defied himself to become a singer, while watching TV with his father he spurted out that "One Day You Will See Me Out There" Guirat realized that acoustic and pop rock genres were more of his style when he learnt guitar at 14. Though his attention was still split between music and sports, trying his hand at martial arts, soccer and tennis, he formed his first band, 'Hypnos' at age 15 and recorded his first demo, singing lead and produced his first album with the band with songs in English and French. In 2008 Guirat auditioned for the 5th season of the show Star Academy which is the Arab World's version of the French show with its namesake Star Academy (France) based in Lebanon. Along with Guirat there were 19 other participants at the competition representing different countries from the Middle East and North Africa. After 4 months Guirat reached the show's grand finale with two others. Guirat won that seasons' title with the highest percentage of votes from global viewers. Back home Guirat was welcomed on arrival at Tunis-Carthage Airport by the former Tunisian Minister of Culture. The show launched Guirat's music career. In 2009 Guirat released his début single 'L’Ange Perdu' (The Lost Angel), a reprise of an Arabic score by singer/composer Marwan Khoury, performed in French. The lyrics which he co-penned with fellow countryman Ayman Jouadi echo a story from Guirat's childhood.