Exclusive Interview: Youthful Awakening With Global Pop Star Shab
At the beginning of last year, global pop sensation Shab set up three guiding phrases for the upcoming season: let go, surrender, and embrace the new. As she settles in her London hotel room after jetlagged few days of unusual British sunshine, Shab lets Mogul into her world as she juggles varying levels of responsibilities, as a mother, as a wife, as a pop star, but also as Shab, her own person, battling with past demons and traumas.
Immersing into her self-reflective narrative, Shab lays all her cards on the table to start a conversation, inspire people, and help women worldwide with self-expression and self-love. Mogul’s exclusive interview turned into an insightful dialogue between two women, connecting across the world.
Shab is an Iranian refugee now residing in Dallas, Texas, where she put her roots down and built a family. As she touches upon her experience living under the Iranian regime, life’s obstacles suddenly seem mundane. Shab does not go by any rule books; she follows her heart and cherishes every morning and night she and her family are safe.
Concerning the current events in Iran and earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, Shab discusses motherhood and treating her kids as enlightened adults who have the power to change the world one day.
With a new single ‘Dolce Vita,’ Shab celebrates the sweet life while pressing the agenda of ‘age is only a number’ and ‘you become what you think.’ She speaks on the healing powers of making music and writing lyrics as a young woman and her embedded fears of speaking up and expressing her sexuality with no boundaries, such as her previous release, ‘Sexual.’
Later, the conversation diverts into Shab sharing her beauty secrets, healthy routines, and worthwhile mantras surrounding youthful awakening.
What do you have planned while you’re in London?
I was actually invited to my first fashion show. It’s Gabriela Gonzalez and Julien MacDonald and he’s designed for Jennifer Lopez, Catherine Zeta Jones and Nicole Scherzinger. I’m excited to go see this new line that he created with Gabriela because they partnered up now.
How was your tour last year?
The tour was great. It was a lot of learning curves. The first time, you have to be a girl scout, things will happen or fall apart. Maybe the set we worked on wouldn’t work live for one of the songs. You need get used to completely adjusting, learning and growing as you go on these tours. I feel like I’ve learned so much. I grew so much and at the end of the day, look, it’s about the audience. Concerts are expensive these days. If they’re coming and spending money, you want to give people a good show. This was the first tour for me, and it was not exactly how I would want it to go. My three words I set for myself at the beginning of last year were surrender, let go and, and embrace the new. Have an open mind and not take the small stuff too seriously.This mindset has helped me a lot as I go with the flow. We missed two weeks of the dates because Anastasia had some vocal problems. We were all ready. My whole team was in Europe. We even did our last rehearsal before the show. It was definitely a downer for my team, but we kept our energy up and things worked out at the end. The universe throws curve ball to get you ready for bigger things. I’m grateful for the experience.
English is your second language, when you started performing, making music, how did it make your feel?
Music is a form of expression and you’re telling a story. I feel like my music has healed me. When I write or think about a lyric or an idea for a song, I want it to connect people. Music is a very powerful.form of art. It is very important for me to be able to express myself and also entertain. I want to put something out that’s inspiring for people and it’s going to move them in some way and it’s going to touch their soul. A favourite artist of mine that is able to do tat is Sia. I like to use my music to inspire and lift people up, and transcend people to another place.
You could be called an expert in lyrics about love, being in love, passion, lust, what is unconditional love for you?
I think unconditional love is when you learn to love yourself. Learn to forgive yourself and others because forgiveness is very powerful. You do things for others without expecting anything in return. To me, that’s unconditional love because you do it out of your heart. And if you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. For me, it was a long journey to get to this place because,I’m a mom of two and I sometimes have to be okay to make sure they’re okay. My girlfriend always says, who’s filling your cup though? And I’m like, wow. She has a good point. My husband is there, but there’s certain things that you can only do yourself. So to me, unconditional love is really surrendering and forgiving because forgiveness leads you to another place. When you do things out of your way for others and you don’t expect anything in return, you just do it because of the goodness of your heart.
After the release of ‘Sexual,’ you posted a video on Instagram speaking up about your experience living under the Iranian oppression, you also said you received countless inquiries from your fans to speak up, how did it feel sharing your piece?
Sometimes in life, you might not feel ready to come forward, because you’re trying to hide from the past. I felt like I was in a good place spiritually, mentally, where I could stand for these women and support them in my way. I’m going to continue doing that whether it’s the Persian women of the world, whether it is European women, it doesn’t matter. I support anything to do with love and honour, respect and women support women. But I felt like that was the right timing just to come out because I was also in a good place and I was just ready to speak out about it. For the longest time I was hiding because it was so hard for me growing up under that regime and I was trying to forget it because I was trying to start a new life and I didn’t wanna go back. One thing I try not to do is look back at the past. The only reason I might go there is because I’m trying to learn lessons from it, but not carrying the past into the future because the past is the past and I always look forward to what I need to do and try to stay present. But I felt like it was time for me to do something.
The ‘Sexual’ music video is probably the most risque I’ve done. I’m pretty conservative. I have kids and I come from a very conservative family and to me that was really expressing ourselves as women. It’s not something I wear every day. It was for the art of music, I wanted to tell all women, hey, don’t worry, feel beautiful in your skin. Don’t let anybody judge you or tell you otherwise. You are beautiful no matter what what color, ethnicity, background, doesn’t matter where you come from. You are beautiful. You are sexy. You’re goddess, you are stunning. There’s nothing wrong with flipping the switch and going into a character. You don’t have to be the same person every day. You can just dress up and do whatever you want that woman to feel that day, and put makeup on. Don’t put makeup on. You’re still gonna be beautiful because women. Women don’t have expiration dates. We just don’t expire because we are, we give birth, we create life. A lot of people say, you started late. I’m like, well, women don’t have expiration date. It doesn’t matter. I can start any time. It’s about the energy. It’s not about the age. I would say every 10 years I get a year older, every decade I get one year older. It’s about the energy. It’s about how much energy you have and it’s about the happiness of your soul and the happiness you carry with you in your heart and the pain and all the suffering and everything you’ve been through.
It must be overwhelming tot think about the different regime and what would happen if you released ‘Sexual’ under the Iranian regime.
I would be dead. They would’ve killed me. They would’ve taken me to jail and they would’ve made an example of me in front of everyone. There are other countries, where it’s pretty bad as well. But the government is not forcing them to cover up. If there is a little bit sticking out of your vail, they take you to the morality police. They have no mercy, they will take you and they will throw you in jail cell and kill you because you’re showing a bit of hair. It’s basic human rights. It’s mind boggling that in 2023, we’re still acting like in 1900s. They can do that to people and the United Nations, they can’t do anything. I thought we would be in this place in time and space where we just really want to enjoy this world and the fruits of this labor and be good to each other. Enjoy this life, it’s the only life we get. We come here and there’s all these different obstacles with different countries, thank God for countries, like US, England, Australia, Germany, where people are able to thrive and build their life and live a good life and their government is not breathing down their necks. We are very blessed and there’s not one day that I wake up and not thank God. Even if it’s a hard day and I’m crying, I am still safe. Thank you for this lesson. Thank you, God. Whenever I’m having a bad day, I always turn it, I sit with it for a second. I’m like, no, get up. Go move. I get out of my mind and I get it into my body and I work out. I love sweating. I love doing yoga. I love opening my channels. I just pray. And good things always come afterward. Turning your pain into power and love, because people can, you can become better. I treat people the way I want to be treated.
As a mother, what are you teaching your kids?
That’s interesting you said that, with my son, he just turned six and my daughter’s four. They were crying and I explained to them, I was like, guys, did you know what’s going on in Turkey right now? I like to let them know world events, even though they’re young. Whenever they’re complaining, I like to remind them they have a good life, they’re safe. I tell them you know mommy used to have to cover her hair. I couldn’t show my hair. They were shocked. They asked why. I explained to them there are counties with different laws, they don’t treat people good. I always try to teach them, kindness is your superpower. I say be strong, but at the same time be kind. Don’t be pushovers, be kind. I want them to know what’s right, what’s wrong. I talk to them like they’re adults. Be good to your friends. Respect your friends. Kids are very intuitive. They’re the purest source of energy that came from above.I speak to them like they’re enlightened, grown adults and they listened. My son was like I don’t like treating them like they were treating you. I speak to them like they’re enlightened, grown adults, and hey listened. Then my son got sad. He’s said mommy, but that’s so sad. I don’t like them treating women the way they were treating you. And I said, okay, but I want you to be the acceptance, be the change in the world. You are the future.
What’s your healthy lifestyle routine? How do you maintain it?
I have three things that I’m grateful for as soon as I get out of bed. Doesn’t matter how tired I am, or you have stuff on your mind. I try to wake up and go to sleep, being thankful. When I wake up, I get a glass of warm water with lemon. I don’t really drink coffee. I like chamomile tea in the evening and green tea in the morning. I work out at 6.30am in the morning with my trainer three days a week, then I do cardio. I’m inside the gym for hour and 40 minutes three days a week. The days I don’t train, I do yoga to open my body. Because of the dancing and singing, you need a lot of energy. I try my best to eat healthy foods, salads and soups during the day. I make my own dressing because dressings can actually be super heavy and people try to lose weight and they use the wrong dressing they gain weight. It’s like an oxymoron to meI try to eat light at nighttime. We cook a lot at home because we want the kids to experience the family dynamics. When kids see that, they remember it and it’s nice to be home with them. I don’t go by rule books. I do what I feel inside and I’m not being obsessed with youth, but this is the only body that we get, so take care of it. We have to take care of it, nourish it. Give it water, give it everything you need, like sunlight, water, good food, ice creams and just give it love. It’s thinking young and growing young. That’s it. Because you think you become what you think. So if I’m already thinking I’m gonna be successful and I’m gonna do this, I’m already working at my rehearsals and writing music and doing everything I can. I work very hard, but I love it. I love working hard, and I love inspiring my fans and talking to them.
What is your beauty secret?
For my face routine, my secret cream is its coconut oil. It’s not actually oil, it looks like a cream. I put it on my kids, they love it. I use the roller with the needles as well. I use the sauna for sweating. Getting all the toxins out of your body. Try to drink a lot of water is great. Water is very cleansing. I used to be an esthetician by trade. I studied skincare for a year and I worked at the Spas for eight years. I learned a lot of techniques and things, such as every gentle around the eyes, you always massage upwards because of gravity. There’s a lot of different exercises and it doesn’t take long. I’m done in like three minutes.I love everything abut the skin, I think it’s so beautiful. And if you take care of it, your skin can change. I know that coconut oil changed my life, changed my skin. When it comes to sun, a little bit of it is good. You need it because it gives you energy. I roll first, then put the product on and then I roll it again. I do that like three times a week and I also have these crystals. It’s a quartz crystal roller and that in the fridge. I have a pink one and a jade one. It feels nice and cool around your eyes. Roll it upwards. I have it next to my chocolate so if I’m eating a piece of chocolate, I have to roll as well. It’s like my treat.
Your new single ‘Dolce Vita’ just came out last week, what emotion did you want to encapsulate with this one?
‘Dolce Vita’ is the first video we actually shot in Dallas because me and my team always shoot in LA. Éli Sokhn, he’s done all my music videos from the beginning. I was more creatively involved in the ‘Sexual’ video and was getting a new creative zone. The ‘Dolce Vita’ music video is basically my life un a nutshell. I was inspired by the movie Dolce Vita, circa 1960s. I always thought the fashion was unreal. It’s classic beauty, it’s inspired by the times of Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren. I want to bring that back. To me Dolce Vita is the sweet life. There’s our plane with the Shab logo that sits nine people. There’s a performance by the pool. It has Spanish words in it, but the spelling is Italian. We did that on purpose. It’s a conversation starter. It’s about your support system. It’s about living a life without being unapologetic. It’s about not sweating the small stuff. It’s about making something that nobody’s even looking at, but making into something beautiful. It’s about the sweet life and it’s about how you take, let life and make it into your own poetry.
Instagram: @shabmusicofficial
Twitter: @shabmusic_
Facebook: @ShabMusicOfficial
Youtube: @ShabMusicOfficial
Spotify: Shab
