From stutterer to showman: the triumph of Sharara
Ibrahim Sharara performs during an event. File
Raghib Hassan, Staff Reporter
When you win recognition for your creativity and for your contribution to society at a time when going gets tough for you, then it is an ultimate victory. It would be a heart-warming experience for any one! And this is exactly what happened with the Dubai-based Lebanese artist and Emcee (MC) Ibrahim Sharara.
26-year-old Sharara is a very familiar name in Dubai and UAE circles. He is an artist who makes music and is a professional MC also, but self-trained. He has been entertaining and enthralling UAE audiences with his energy and sense of humour, but while growing up, he never had imagined that one day he would be able to entertain a crowd of 12,000.
He was a stutterer while growing up. He had also a terrible degree of shyness; but with grit and determination, he managed to overcome his fears and today he is an accomplished professional entertainer and artist. Sharara has done so many events he hardly has had time for himself. But his smooth and celebrated ride was derailed by Covid-19 pandemic and he had to stay put up at home without any work.
That was really challenging for him. However, things have started moving again, albeit at a snail pace. But he is happy and excited to see events emerging now.
He has a couple of them coming up soon. He has seen a silver lining in these trying times. He feels thrilled again and hopes to be back with the same pace at the same place.
At the time when MC Sharara was trying to restart his life and needed a pat on his back, he got a pleasant surprise from Dubai Government. He has received UAE's coveted Golden Residence Visa, for 10 years! It is something he never, ever had planned or even imagined. Talking about this joyful surprise he said: “I did not even apply and it was not even on my mind. One day, I received a call directly from Dubai Culture, saying I have been nominated for a Golden Visa.
“I did not know how to react. I did not believe it in the beginning, but when I received a mail from them, I realised I had got it. It was a thrilling experience!
“I got the Golden Visa stamped on my passport on June 15,” said Sharara.
“It seems they were following me on Instagram. They were au fait with my kind of work as an MC or as an artist,” he added.
Sharara's profile on Instagram reads like this: emcee, presenter, artist, content creator, events. Having 19,000 subscribers on his instagram page looks very impressive.
Some of the events he has hosted are 2020 NYE Countdown at La Mer in Dubai, Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi, Premier of the movie Birds of Prey at VOX Cinema in Dubai, Arabian Gulf Cup Final, among others.
When asked to share his journey he said: “I am self-made MC and my romance with the craft started in 2014 with GITEX event in Dubai. “It was my first event and I had no prior experience of compering an event; but somewhere in my heart I knew I could run the show. And that's how my romance with mike started.”
Recalling his time in Dubai, he said that he came here in 2004, with his family.
Talking about himself, he recalled that he was a very shy boy. “I used to stutter a lot, I could not speak to anyone, not even on phone. “But I knew so many people overcame this issue; so I started reading out book in front of mirror. I would read out loudly and slowly and that's how I overcame this.”
He said he would write and record music. Every time he would sing, he would not stutter. “I always had lots of energy in front of the audience. Therefore, I thought to give it a try for an MC and here I am.”
Sharing his future plans, he said: “I have a lots of plans. I have couple of events coming up and many more will come soon. I am also doing an album, which I hope will be out by the end of this year. It will be a R & B and Hip Hop.”
He concluded: “I love to make people happy. It is thrilling to see people laughing and smiling with you. I feel energetic while interacting with the audience. I am a different man when on stage, holding a mike.”
