Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
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1. Hi SHAB, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Thank you so much for having me! I’ve been wonderful—busy creating, performing, being a mother, and attempting to keep up with a life that apparently has no interest in slowing down.
But I’m deeply grateful. There is so much music, movement and excitement in my world right now, so I’m embracing every beautiful, slightly chaotic moment.
2. You have mentioned how your latest single, “BEST OF ALL TIME,” is ultimately about choosing joy and celebrating the people who remind us of our own strength when we lose sight of it. What was happening in your life when you realized this was the message you wanted to put into a song?
I was thinking at that time about how easy it is to lose sight of ourselves when life becomes overwhelming. We all experience moments when fear, disappointment or uncertainty becomes louder than our own inner voice. During those times, it is often the people who love us—for me especially, my kids, husband and family—who remind us of who we truly are.
BEST OF ALL TIME emerged from wanting to celebrate those relationships: the people who lift us, believe in us and help us find our light again. The song isn’t really about saying I’m the best. It’s about saying Together, we bring out the best in one another.
It is not about me; it is about us.
And, quite honestly, joy sometimes requires a little determination—and a very good beat.
3. The whole approach of a song that acknowledges heartbreak, anger and uncertainty while still telling people to dance through it is quite interesting. Do you see music as a way of processing difficult emotions rather than simply escaping them?
Absolutely — I don’t believe music asks us to deny what hurts, but conversely helps us move through it. There is something deeply healing about allowing your body to move while your heart is still finding its way.
Whether metaphorically or in reality, dancing does not mean the pain was insignificant, but rather did not take everything from you. Music allows us to feel heartbreak, fear and anger without building a permanent home inside them.
Sometimes you process an emotion by speaking about it, sometimes by praying—and sometimes by putting on fabulous shoes and dancing until you remember your own strength.
4. The song came out of your writing sessions with Damon Sharpe, Bonnie McKee and JHart. What was the chemistry like in that room, and how did the four of you turn such a broad idea as resilience and happiness into something that feels so immediate and danceable?
There was beautiful chemistry in that room because everyone brought a different kind of magic. Damon understands my voice and artistic instincts so deeply. Bonnie has an extraordinary gift for transforming a feeling into an unforgettable pop moment, and JHart brings such emotional intelligence and melodic sensitivity.
We never wanted resilience to sound like a lecture, but rather for people to feel it before they even analyzed it. The rhythm, melody and lyrics all had to carry the same message: life may be complicated, but you are still alive, still moving and still capable of joy. When the chemistry is right, a very big idea can suddenly feel as natural as dancing with your closest friends.
5. You’ve described “BEST OF ALL TIME” as an ode to family, lovers, friends and the people who inspire us to become better versions of ourselves. Who are some of the people who have played that role in your own journey, particularly during the periods when you needed that strength the most?
My family has always been at the core of my strength. My husband & children continually remind me why hope matters. They inspire me to become more patient, courageous and present—and they are also wonderfully efficient at keeping my ego under control. Most of all, they supply hope.
Moreover and alongside my family, the people who have all helped shape me are those who have loved me through different chapters of my life, and the collaborators who believed in my voice before the world fully understood it.
I am also deeply devoted to the cause of womanhood in Iran as well as by extraordinary women anywhere around the world who continue to rise, speak and claim their freedom —often at an unimaginable personal cost. Their strength reminds us that courage is not always loud. Sometimes, courage is simply the decision to rise again, even when the world has given you every reason not to.
6. Your music does a great job of bringing subtle Persian melodies into contemporary pop. How conscious are you of balancing those elements of your heritage with the global pop influences that have shaped your sound?
My Persian heritage is not something I sprinkle as decoration on my music; it is already living inside me.
Sometimes it appears clearly, and sometimes it is more subtle—in the strings, the melodic movement, the emotion or the way I tell a story.
I love contemporary global pop, but never want to lose the cultural details that make my voice my own. The goal is not to force two worlds together. It is to allow them to meet naturally: because that is how they exist within me. I am Persian-American and my music hopefully carries both histories without asking either one to become smaller.
7. Your journey to becoming an artist is extraordinary: you left Iran as a child, spent years separated from your family, arrived in New York as a teenager with one suitcase, learned English and eventually left law school to pursue music. Looking back, how much of that journey do you think is embedded in the artist you are today, even when you’re writing something as celebratory as BEST OF ALL TIME?
All of it is embedded in me. I left Iran at fourteen with one suitcase and spent years learning how to survive, adapt and find a sense of belonging. When you experience separation and uncertainty at such a young age, you learn that joy is not something to take for granted. It becomes something sacred.
Even my most celebratory music carries that history. The brightness has depth because I thoroughly understand darkness. When I sing about joy, freedom or becoming the best version of yourself, those are not abstract ideas to me. They are totems I have had to choose repeatedly.
Leaving law school for music may not have been the most conventional decision—but after everything I had already survived, disappointing a few textbooks did not seem particularly daunting.
8. You’ve gone from those early experiences of having to find your voice in a new country to becoming increasingly outspoken about women’s rights in Iran. How do you navigate the relationship between SHAB the pop artist, SHAB the woman with a deeply personal history, and SHAB the person using her platform to speak about issues larger than herself?
While it’s kinda weird to talk about oneself in the third person, I no longer see those iterations of SHAB as three separate people. They are all parts of the same woman.
The Artist gives me a language that can reach beyond politics and borders. The Woman remembers what it felt like to leave, to be separated from family and to rebuild her identity. And The Advocate understands that having a voice carries responsibility—particularly when so many women are still fighting to claim ownership of their own lives.
I do not believe every song must be political, but instead that the mandate upon every authentic artist is to be honest. My work can celebrate beauty, femininity, love and freedom while still acknowledging that, for many women, expressing those qualities remains an act of courage.
I am deeply inspired by women who carry a divine feminine energy—a strength that nurtures, creates, protects and heals. These are women who choose to uplift one another rather than compete, because they understand that another woman’s light never diminishes their own. Their courage, compassion and wisdom raise the vibration of the world. These women are here to help heal humanity and guide us toward a more loving, peaceful and united future. I honor them, respect them and love them.
Beauty is freedom. And freedom has a rhythm. So when women rise together, the whole world rises with them.
9. Your recent run of releases has produced multiple Billboard Top 40 successes, while your live performances have also been getting a lot of attention. Does the growing scale of your career change how you think about performing—or do you still approach the stage with the same desire to make a personal connection with the audience?
The concert productions may become larger, the lights may become brighter and the sexy heels may become slightly more dangerous, but the purpose remains the same: connection.
I never want an audience simply to watch me perform. I want them to feel invited into the experience. I want someone in the room to leave feeling more confident, more hopeful or more alive than when they arrived.
Success expands the platform, but it should never create distance. Whether I am performing for a few hundred people or thousands, I am still looking for that moment when I am able to shrink that distance with my audience, where we forget the separation between the stage and the room. That is where the real magic lives.
10. There’s a strong sense of evolution happening in your music: the emotional and electronic elements are becoming increasingly cohesive while you continue to incorporate global influences. What do you feel you understand about your artistic identity now that you didn’t understand when you first started making music?
I realize now that I do not have to choose between depth and glamour: or otherwise between my Persian heritage and contemporary pop. And I didn’t always so understand.
I can be vulnerable and powerful, spiritual and sensual, elegant and playful. Human beings are full of contradictions; that is what makes us interesting.
Earlier in my career, I sometimes felt I had to fit neatly into an existing category. Now I understand that my responsibility is to build my own world — a world where East and West, emotion and movement, fashion and storytelling all belong together.
My artistic identity is not about fitting into one box. Frankly, I left Iran with only one suitcase. I have no desire to spend the rest of my life living inside a box.
11. BEST OF ALL TIME is the second of three songs coming from your 2026 songwriting sessions with Damon Sharpe, Bonnie McKee and JHart. Without giving too much away, what can you tell us about where this current chapter of SHAB is ultimately heading—and what do you hope listeners understand about you by the time they hear all three?
This chapter of my career is moving toward an even more complete expression of who I am—emotionally honest, globally influenced, feminine, energetic and unafraid of joy. Each song reveals a different layer, but together they tell a larger story about identity, connection and personal freedom.
By the time listeners hear all three, I hope they understand that my music is not asking them simply to observe my journey. I am inviting them into it. I want people to feel that their scars can become strength, that beauty is freedom, and that freedom has a rhythm capable of connecting us across cultures, languages and borders.
Most of all, I hope they hear this message: you do not have to become someone else to step into your power. Sometimes you simply need to remember who you have been all along—and perhaps turn the volume up while you do
