Amir-John Haddad was born In Freiburg Germany (Black Forest) in 1975 with a Colombian and Palestinian background. He was raised and educated in Germany and lived for a short while in Bogotá (Colombia). Since childhood he hasn’t stopped travelling and has been always in contact with music. His family environment taught him how to play music by ear. He learned music, his future language, by oral transmission and was only 8 years old when he officially started studying the Flamenco guitar after learning Arabic oud at home by the hand of his father and first teacher Rimon Haddad. Amir started playing live at school venues when he was 7 years old and by the age of 12 he gave his first public concert on a “real” stage. Since a very small age Amir was led to diverse music styles from South American folklore to classical music, classical Arabic and Oriental music over to African music, Flamenco music… as well as western influences like Jazz, Rock, Funk, Pop, Metal, Fusion… “When I was seven years old our TV quit working and my parents didn’t replace it so from that moment on I was raised without TV at home and that was very important to my playing and my innocent and creative approach to music!”

Years later in 1997 Amir decided to move further south to live and study guitar in one of the most important birthplaces of Flamenco, Jerez de la Frontera (Andalucía-Spain). As he says: “I left Germany with my guitar and a suitcase full of illusions & expectations! I wanted to learn this art form the traditional way by oral transmission in the streets meeting the artists and make my experiences through living with the people and share many moments of “juerga” (Flamenco jam all night long)!” During his period in Andalucía he was disciple of famous guitar maestros like Pepe Justicia and Enrique de Melchor. This experience was going to be very important for his career.

In 1998 Amir moved on to Madrid to find new frontiers and keep on growing professionally as a musician and find a place in the music scene, “I wanted to make a living out of what I liked the most! I couldn’t imagine myself in the future without playing my instrument!” He played in famous Flamenco Tablaos such as Las Carboneras, Café de Chinitas, Corral de la Pacheca, Casa Patas etc.

It was in Madrid when Amir was invited to join and play with the legendary and famous Spanish World Music Band Radio Tarifa. Amir was the official oud, bouzouki and guitar player for almost ten years and made many world tours through a large number of countries and cities. In 1999 he won the first prize for original musical composition at the national “Certamen de Coreografia de Danza Española y Flamenco” at the Teatro Albeniz in Madrid.

Since then he had the opportunity to work, record and tour with various artists like:

Joaquín Ruiz, Maestro Ciro, Eliseo Parra, Jorge Pardo, Tomasito, Navajita Plateá, Raimundo Amador, Miguel Flores Quirós “El Capullo de Jerez”, Melendi, Inmaculada Ortega, Pepe Justicia, Belen Fernandez, Carmela Greco, Jose Luis Monton, Enrique de Melchor, Juan Parrilla, David Cereduela, Antonio Canales, Antonio Carrion, David Serva, Eva Durán, Peter Oteo, Alejandro Granados, Talegon de Cordoba, Juan Ogalla, Domingo Ortega, Olga Pericet, Carmina Cortes, Salva de Maria, Manuel Liñan, Marcos Flores, Manuel Palacin, Carmen Fernandez, Tino di Geraldo, Joaquín Escudero, Manuel de la Malena, Luís de la Tota, Alfonso Losa, Jose Antonio Galicia “El Gali”, Teresa Nieto, Yrvis Mendez Raymond, Aziz Kuyateh, Evgeny Pimonenko, Geovany da Silveira, Cristian Miño, Tom Schlüter, Alejandra Gutty, Eduardo Dorda, Manuel de Lucena, Sebastián Rubio, Susana Weich Shahak, Maher Sissoko, Jesus Torres, Jesus de Rosario, Toni Maya, Los Losada, Rocio Molina, Imran Khan, Leonor Moro, Ricardo Espinosa, El Jaleo, Rafael de Huelva, Mariano Martin, Prashant Shah, Murad Ali, Isabel Montero, Guadiana, Finn Martin, Kaushik Basu, Rafael Jiménez “El Falo”, José Menese, Lole Montoya, Rafael Amargo, Gerardo Nuñez, Javier Paxariño, Naseer Shamma, Canal +, just to mention some of them.

Amir has toured countries like:

England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Poland, Israel, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Ireland, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Denmark…

Amir has performed at venues like:

-The Royal Festival Hall (London) –Barbican Centre (London) –Royal Albert Hall (London) –The Hot House (Chicago) –Town Hall (New York) –Luna Park (Los Angeles) –Teatro Campesino (San Juan Bautista California) –Teatro Bellini (Palermo) –Cabaret Sauvage (Paris) –Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin) –Teatro Tivoli (Barcelona) –Zellerbach Hall (Berkley) –Sala Apolo (Barcelona) –Sala Bikini (Barcelona) –BBC4 (London) –Chapel Hill (London) –Roskilde Festival 1999 (Denmark) -Kulturhuset (Stockholm) -Cosmopolite (Oslo) -NJPAC (New Jersey) –Emerson Majestic Theatre (Boston) –Dranouter Festival (Belgium) –Teatro Häagen Dazs (Madrid) –Teatro Albeniz (Madrid) -Citadel (Cairo) –Womad Madrid –Womad Canary Island –Festival de Jerez 2007/2010 –Fiesta de la Buleria 2007 (Jerez de la Frontera) –Teatro Libre (Bogotá) –Teatro Media Torta (Bogotá) –Jazz Festival (Bogotá) –Cumbre Tajin (Veracruz-Mexico) –Feria Internacional del Libro (Guadalajara-Mexico) -SESC (Sao Paolo) -Edimbourgh Festival –Tumb of the Kings (Jerusalem) –Jazz Festival (Istambul) –Conde Duque (Madrid) –Sziget Festival (Budapest) -A38 (Budapest), Fliegende Bauten (Hamburg) …and many others.

You can find Amir John Haddad on recordings like:

-Fiebre (Radio Tarifa) Nominated for Latin Grammy Awards 2004

-2000 infinito (Cronometro Budu)

-Ouruborus (Javier Paxariño)

-El poder de la raiz (Navajita Plateá)

-De ayer mañana (Eliseo Parra)

-Diez (Live DVD Eliseo Parra)

-Aires del norte (Jesus Torres)

-La cabra tira al monte (Entre coche y anden)

-Sobrellevé (Ezequiel Benitez)

-De ida y vuelta (Patricia Prieto)

-Psicomotriz (GN3)

-Centryfugal (Centryfugal)

-Garia (Isabel Montero)

-Comprende Flamenco (Faustino Nuñez)

He has recorded soundtracks for theatre plays, dance choreographies, publicity, tv documentaries. Latin Grammy Awards 2004

He recently released his first solo album “Pasando por Tabernas” on German record label Double Moon Records Köln with eight original Flamenco tunes playing Arabic oud and flamenco guitar.

Amir has his own Flamenco Band called Almeraya where he combines pure Flamenco with Oriental elements adding Arabic oud or Greek bouzouki to his compositions. As well he is collaborating with Ziryab Sindicate a band based in Madrid mixing Jazz, Funk, Gnawa, Afro, Rock and Flamenco.

Right now he is recording together with Spain’s producer Carlos Raya the debut album with his own band Zoobazar, an Oriental-Fusion-World-Music-Quartet.

And he has also recorded a 12-track debut album with his Hard-Funk-Rock-Metal Band Members of Parliament called “Serious Business”.

Amir applies his musical and cultural heritage in order to achieve a new sound whether it’s Flamenco, Rock, Oriental, Fusion or any other type of music he tries to approach, he does it without loosing the strong character and emotional sense of each music style.
His further interest in music has led him to play besides the flamenco guitar various instruments like: Bouzouki, Turkish saz, mandola, banjo, electric oud, electric guitar and bass.

“Music keeps our spirit alive and makes us survive!”

“Big hug to all my friends and beautiful people around the globe that I was able to meet all these years and shared many wonderful moments of my life (on stage & off stage), you know who you are! Looking forward for some more!!!”

LOVE & PEACE