Ema Shah

Ema Shah () (born 7 June 1981) is a Kuwaiti singer, composer, pianist, guitarist, actress, writer, dancer, and director. Her father is Kuwaiti and her mother is Iranian. At the Winter Film Awards of 2014 in New Your City, she won the award for Best Music Video, and won Best Short International Film at North Hollywood Cinema Festival 2016 and received Five awards at the Best Shorts Competition of 2013 in California and won Finalist Best Short Film at the Back in the Box Competition 2013 and received six nominations at the Best Shorts Competition and one in St Albans Film Festival of 2014 in UK for her Music Video Masheenee Alcketiara. In 2012, she sang to the Kuwaiti Prime minister the prince Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, a Song of the Kuwaiti heritage Sung by Abdel Halim Hafez.
Career.
Early life.
Ema Shah studied opera, photography and films. She has attracted attention through her activism, radical views, humanitarian often controversial points of view and eccentricity. In addition to being a founding member and president of troupe Anthropology, she is a member of Team Force of the Rising Sun" for brides in Kuwait, Kuwait Cinema Club, National Democratic Youth League, Kuwait Democratic Forum, Dubai Community Theater, Kuwaiti Human Rights Association and Club Business and Professional Women in Kuwait.
Theater.
She made her debut stage appearance in "Silence" by Harold Pinter, followed by "The rhinoceros" by Eugène Ionesco 2004, "The old women and the poet" by Yukiomicemia, "Debate between night and day" by Mohammed Affendi Al-Gazairi, the clown "Monodrama Bantomim" (at the Mediterranean People Festival-Italy) and "The Meteor" by Dorinmat.
In 2006, Ema established her group "Anthropology", joining actors from different nationalities, with performances, spectacles and songs in different languages, including Arabic, English, French, Japanese, Spanish. She has performed as a singer, pianist, composer and actress at various local and international events.
Films.
In 2011, she starred a short movie called "Swing", she also acted on a short movie called "Mooz" (Banana). The film containing sexual allusions won the jury prize at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Music.
She composed a collection of musicals inspired by books like "Jesus, the Son of Human", and "The Prophet", written by Gibran Khalil Gibran, and performed them using piano and guitar on the Kuwait National Museum. She has also sung covers for many well known and international artists. She also took part in the musical "We can not write on a black page". Her singles include "Shah" about her grandfather Shah Khan. She has sung lyrics written by, amongst others, Lebanese Elia Abu Madi, Saudi Malek Asfeer and Australian Miranda Lee.
Controversy.
Ema sparked a big controversy after singing "Hava Nagila" in Hebrew which led to her being accused of promoting Zionism and normalization of ties with Israel.
International news agencies, Arab and Israeli media covered the story and "Los Angeles Times" ran an article about the affair under the headline "Diva blasted by Islamic clerics for singing in Hebrew at club" including reports of putting her on trial. There were also reported threats on her life. Shah explained that she sang the song as she wanted to go beyond borders, and break barriers in support of universal peace between nations.
Dancing.
Ema Shah competed in dancing rumba at the Twin Cities Open 2019 in Minneapolis, reaching the finals. She danced different styles of silver–level rumba. They took second place in closed rumba and third place in open rumba. 
Below is the picture of a rare international duo: Gordan Bratt from Dancers Studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, dancing with Ema Shah, officially the first Arab dancer from Kuwait and Arabian Gulf, in history, to Latin dance.
The second competing: Ema was 5X WINNER at Embassy Ballroom Championship 28 September 2019 in Irvine, California, Dancing with Fred Astaire Studio professional: Forrest Walsh from Pasadena, California:
4X WINNER: Closed Gold Rumba
1st & 2nd Place: Open Silver Rumba
2nd Place: Open Gold Rumba
3rd Place: Open Gold Rumba
Awards.
2016