Maneli Jamal

About

Award winning guitarist Maneli Jamal has wowed audiences around the world with his visual style of playing acoustic guitar. He incorporates many musical textures in his performances while keeping rhythm with his two hands but you'll swear he has a trio with him. You've got to visually see him live to experience what you thought is possible with the acoustic guitar. He has just reached 70 million Spotify plays, 5 million video views and 180,000+ followers on social media sites making him an artist to watch for.

longer bio

Guitarist Maneli Jamal has lived in five different countries (Iran, Belarus, Germany, USA, Canada) and moved twenty times by the time he was 18. He's gained a sense of musical maturity rarely seen among his peers especially when he transforms his nomadic life experiences into musical movements. There aren’t many players in his style that have his balance of power and sensitivity, nor his breadth of ideas. His rhythmic concepts can be alternately short and dense, or explored carefully through several movements and real life stories. This becomes evident with having won countless music competitions around the world including most recently placing 1st at Canada’s Soundclash Music Awards. Maneli was also named one of the world's top 30 guitarists under 30 by Acoustic Guitar Magazine.  

Having been brought up in an artistic and musical family has contributed to shape his unique and comical story telling approach in live settings. He has already performed in 5 continents and 17 countries as a soloist, has a signature model acoustic guitar named after him and was on the front cover of 2015 Toronto magazine (500,000 copies distributed worldwide). Maneli's music is played all throughout Spotify playlists like the popular Peaceful Guitar and Acoustic Concentration.

He is a six-time recipient of Canada Council grants, nine-time recipient of Ontario Council grants and nine-time recipient of Toronto Arts Council grants.

The world is his home and he plays from one end to the other.

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Documentary

MUSIC

Awards

1st place - 2014 Harbourfront Centre's Soundclash Music Awards (Canada)
2nd place - 2014 Lee Ritenour’s Six String Theory Competition - Acoustic Guitar Category
1st place - 2013 Best Guitarist Award for Indie Week Festival (Canada)
1st place - 2013 Beaches International Jazz Festival Hennessy Contest (Canada)
1st place - 2012 “Awakening” Best Recording AES Convention by Pouya Hamidi (worldwide)
1st place - 2012 Winterfolk Festival Auditions (Canada)
1st place - 2011 Winterfolk Festival Auditions (Canada)
3rd place - 2011 Guitar Idol III held in London, UK (worldwide)
1st place - 2010 Taylor Acoustic Guitars Showdown (worldwide)
1st place - 2009 Faith Acoustic Guitars Competition (worldwide)

International Releases

'State of Intuition' LP (2023)
'Peaceful Guitar' LP (2022)
'Beauty of Flow' LP (2021)
'Soul Odyssey' LP (2020)
'Tranquil Strings' LP (2020)
'Ambient Sketchbook' LP (2018)
'The Mardom Movement' LP (2016)
'The Lamaj Movement' LP (2012)
'The Ziur Movement' LP (2009)
'Demo 2006' EP (2006)

Tours

2019 Europe Tour (Germany, Poland, Italy) 5 Shows
2018 Fall Tour (France, Germany) 5 Shows
2018 Spring Tour (Germany, Belgium) 10 shows
2017 Fall Europe Tour (Italy, Germany, Spain, UK) 30 shows
2017 Winter Tour (Spain, Greece, India). 15 shows
2016 Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Holland) CD Release Tour. 30 shows
2016 India / Mexico / USA Winter solo tour. 22 shows
2015 USA / Canada with Cole Clark Guitars to promote Maneli Jamal Signature Model. 21 shows
2015 Reunion Island with Pedro Eustache, Shenkar and Luna Lee. 7 shows
2015 USA / Canada with International Guitar Night (Andrew York, Diego Figueiredo and Brian Gore). 24 shows
2014 Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland) with Andrea Valeri. 12 shows
2013 New Zealand / Australia with Van Larkins. 35 shows
2012 Canada with Van Larkins and Trevor Gordon Hall. 17 shows

Recent Accomplishments

2023 70,000,000 Spotify streams
2023 5,000,000 YouTube views
2023 42k YouTube subscribers / 37k Facebook likes / 80k Instagram followers / 13k TikTok followers
2022 Canada Folk Music Awards (Nominated for Solo Artist of the year)
2022 Canada Folk Music Awards (Nominated for Instrumental Solo Artist of the year)
2021 Best Acoustic Guitarist In the World Right Now (Total Guitar Magazine)
2020 Best Acoustic Guitarist (Nominated by MusicRadar)
2017 Canada Folk Music Awards (Nominated for World Solo Artist of the Year)
2017 Canada Folk Music Awards (Nominated for Solo Instrumental Artist of the Year)
2015 Cole Clark Guitar Maneli Jamal Signature Model AN2EC-MJ
2015 Front cover of Toronto Tourism Magazine. 500,000 copies distributed worldwide
2014 Front cover of Italian Guitar Magazine Acusitca Chittara
2014 Named "30 best guitarst under 30" by Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Press

"Jamal is known for his entertaining on‑stage delivery as well as his playing, and this ability to tell a story pervades his compositions. He has a gift for finding sounds to conjure images, whether he is evoking the Iranian revolution in Awakening or summer in the American South on Southern Magnolia."
-Total Guitar Magazine

"It's great to see a player who integrates classical guitar as well as steel-string but to really understand Maneli's depth of influences as a player, it's worth watching his documentary. Born to Iranian parents in exile in Europe, his upbringing inspires his East-meets-West musical themes."
-Music Radar

"The comical and incredibly talented Maneli Jamal brought stories from his upbringing translated to innovative guitar delivery. Jamal stunned us with his intense frenetic ethnic flare, and even his artfully placed pauses. His story delivery was also spot on and so fun to hear."
-Guitar World, Laura B. Whitmore

"Jamal shows his mastery of phrasing, a sumptuous tone, and an ability to wrest emotion from every note, even from the pauses between the notes."
-Minor 7th, Céline Keating

"Maneli Jamal is an upcoming star and is writing some powerful music with a personal narrative that is compelling and meaningful."
-Andrew York, Grammy Award Winning Guitarist

"Having released his first albums on CandyRat Records, Jamal struck out on his own in 2012 with The Lamaj Movement, a collection that showcases his Iranian heritage as well as the astonishing tone and dexterity that sets him apart from other fingerstylists."
-Acoustic Guitar Magazine

"Each song is a story, the technical wizardry kept to what’s necessary for that tune. He chooses to unfold his mastery of the instrument over the course of a set rather than pack a thousand notes into one or two tunes and reuse tricks all night."
-Orillia Packet, John Swartz

"Listening to Jamal talk about his own work is like listening to the work itself: there’s a story going on, intimately shaping the sound of every individual note. There’s real substance."
-Soundclash Music Awards (Harbourfront Centre), Post City

"Today Maneli is one of the fine young guitarists making their mark in what one would classify as World music. In Maneli’s case this may be more accurate than with many others considering he has lived in Iran, Belarus, Germany, USA, and Canada. His music is truly beyond description."
-Bill Piburn, Fingerstyle 360 Magazine