Leaning back on a leather couch in the lobby of the Pantages Suites Hotel in Toronto, Canadian R&B star Massari is friendly and humble, surprising given the overwhelming success of his self-titled debut album.

Clad in a tight black T-shirt, jeans and his signature, ?M? diamond-encrusted necklace, Massari (real name Sari Abboud) says he?s living out his dream.

?You know it’s weird ’cause in a way I expected it but at the same time for me it?s so overwhelming, the fact that I get up on stage now and people are going crazy, screaming out my name. They are singing to every word of my song. It feels so good.?

The Ottawa native (who moved from Lebanon to Montreal at 10, then to Ottawa at 13) has become a sensation since the release of his album in May 2005 by Capital Prophet Records.

Massari (which means ?money? in Arabic) says his turning point was a Grade 7 talent show, where people started to really notice his voice and take it seriously. His manager, Manny Dion, went to school with the singer and was in the audience. Years later, Massari says it?s the ?family environment? of his record label and team which got him to where he is.

His infectious first single, ?Smile for Me,? featuring Bad Boy recording artist Loon, was a club staple and spent 24 weeks on the Top 40 chart, peaking at number 18 (BDS CHR) in Canada. Crediting Loon as his ?big brother? who guided him before the song?s release, Massari says he wrote each track with the intention of making it a single.

His third single, the ballad ?Real Love,” is climbing higher in radio rotations, and Massari says it?s women who inspire him to make music.

?The way I see them, the way they react to me and my music inspires me to keep going, to work harder because for a man, there is no better feeling in the world than to have all these woman screaming out your name and things like that,? he says.

Combining R&B rhythms with traditional Middle Eastern melodies has been easy for the Lebanese-Canadian singer. Track 13 of his album called ?Inta Hayati? (meaning ?You are my Life?) has him singing in both Arabic and English. Massari, who speaks English, French and Arabic fluently, says his next album will include songs in each language. He added that he aspires to eventually spread his music across the ocean to the Middle East.

?The Middle East, that?s where my goal is. I want to go down there and have people be proud of me, go down there and show them ?look what I?ve done?,? he says. ?Anything I can do I want to do, the more people I can reach the better for me, the more languages I can speak the better for me.?

At a time when Arabs are constantly in the news, Massari is aware of his presence and success as a singer.

?I really feel good about it cause I?m doing something different for a change, you see me on TV and it doesn?t have anything to do with anything that?s wrong. It’s like I?m speaking to people in a language they understand the best, music, ’cause music is universal. I feel I can get my word across to the public by being first a human being regardless of my background.?

And despite his surging popularity (the interview is interrupted by a French woman and her two young children who are given autographed CDs), Massari (who says he would consider media or communications if he wasn?t a singer) insists he?s not letting his stardom change him.

?I don?t let it get to my head honestly, ’cause once you do, everything will be taken away from you, I feel, ’cause there?s a much greater power that controls everything and it only gives certain things? no soul is ever given a burden greater than it can bear.?

While his music is slowly starting to trickle south of the border with a growing fan base in Michigan especially, Massari says more people are beginning to notice Canadian talent.

?I feel like we?re the underdogs and we?ve accomplished something that a lot of people didn?t think that we were capable of. So for me, it’s like I?m here for the artists too, for all the artists who are trying to make it and now they see that there is a way ’cause I made it? work hard and we can all make it together.?

Though he says a 10-year prediction is too far off to make, the singer says two years from now everyone will know his name.

?I feel like the movement we have, the way that we?ve done everything, we?ve really left no chances for anybody to say nothing. We came out with a bang. We made sure we came out to succeed,? he says. ?We came out to blow up and I feel like that?s what we?ve done today. We put a plan together that?s invincible. We?ve got a team that?s invincible and thank God.?

Check out andPOP’s gallery to see some photos from Massari’s video shoot for “Real Love”






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