Elissar Zakaria Khoury (Arabic: إليسار زكريا خوري‎; born October 27, 1971), commonly known as Elissa (إليسا ), is a Lebanese singer. Elissa is one of Lebanon's most famous singers and one of the best-known artists in the Arab world. She was the highest-selling female Middle Eastern artist for 2005, 2009. In 2005, 2006 and 2010 she received the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist and became the first Lebanese singer to receive the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist in 2006. She has currently sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Elissa is also one of the richest celebrities in Lebanon, with a reported estimated wealth of over $40 million. As of 2017, Elissa has over 44 million followers on social media. Since 2018, Elissa is a judge on The Voice Ahla Sawt, the Middle-Eastern edition of The Voice. Elissa was born in Deir el Ahmar to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother. She has three brothers (Ghassan, Kamil, and Jihad) and two sisters (Norma and Rita). Elissa was raised in the Beqaa valley with her other siblings. She graduated from the Lebanese University with a degree in Political Science. Although she had a degree in Political Science, Elissa’s first love was not politics: it was the stage. Therefore, after graduating, Elissa decided to pursue a professional career on the stage and in music. To successfully combine her passion for politics and theater, Elissa joined Le Théâtre de Dix-Heures, a Lebanese Theatrical Group. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.