Early life RedOne was born as Nadir Khayat in
Tétouan, Morocco. In an interview, he said he was the ninth and youngest child in his family. In 1991, he immigrated to
Sweden when he was 19, to pursue a career as a musician. Yacoub, a Palestinian-Swedish songwriter/producer already enjoyed considerable success and was a well-established producer. Inviting RedOne to work with him in the studio, he taught RedOne about "programming and how the software works" and the pair co-wrote a number of songs together. The song, co-written by RedOne, Darin, and RedOne's frequent collaborator
Bilal Hajji, won them a
Swedish Grammy and "Scandinavian Song of the Year". He went on to co-produce Darin's two albums
The Anthem and self-titled album
Darin alongside well-known producers like Ghost,
Jörgen Elofsson,
Arnthor Birgisson and George Samuelson. RedOne had crossover success with the Canadian singer and
Juno Award Carl Henry with hits "I Wish" and "Little Mama". In the ensuing period, he went on to produce a number of Swedish and European pop acts. These included the Dutch pop band
Ch!pz (2005), two songs Cariño Mio and
Wanna Play by the Mexican teen group
RBD for the album
Rebels (2006), American
Christina Milian in a remix of her track "L.O.V.E." as "L.O.V.E. (RedOne remix)" from her album
Best Of, the Dutch singer
EliZe in "
Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Swedish
Idol contestant and popular singer
Ola Svensson in "Cops Come Knocking" and "Go Go Sweden", the latter in support of the
Sweden national team, all in 2006. In 2005, he also worked with pop singer
Britney Spears and songwriter
Michelle Bell on a track titled "Money Love and Happiness" for her scrapped studio album "Original Doll", but the track remained
unreleased until 2012, when Bell leaked the track in full online.
2006–2009: International breakthrough and move to the United States ", "
Bad Romance" and "
Just Dance" during their partnership. In 2006, RedOne produced the single "Bamboo" that was named an "Official Melody" for the
2006 FIFA World Cup. "Bamboo" was featured for the branding and promotion of the event during television broadcasts and advertising campaigns, branded cross-promotions, and as a part of the World Cup Official Music Program, gaining him much audio exposure. In addition,
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) made him the main producer and songwriter for the 2006 World Cup Official Music Program. It was then that he decided to move to the United States with the aim of breaking his career there. In 2007, RedOne decided to move to
Jersey City, New Jersey with his wife for better career opportunities, believing this to be his "now or never opportunity". In 2007, Alan Melina and Laurent Besencon, of New Heights Entertainment, the management company for Lady Gaga and RedOne, were introduced to each other.
2010–present: Continued success and RedOne Records RedOne penned many of the songs sung by
Alexey Vorobyov (also known as Alex Sparrow), who represented Russia in the
Eurovision Song Contest of 2011 and eventually recruited the singer to his record label. In 2010, RedOne founded
2101 Records, a record label, as a joint venture with
Universal Music Group. 2101 Songs on the other hand is a publishing company affiliated with 2101 Records and administered by Sony ATV Songs (BMI). Main acts signed to the label are
Jennifer Lopez,
Mohombi,
Havana Brown,
Porcelain Black In the beginning of 2014, RedOne decided to change his record label 2101 Records into RedOne Records. Main acts signed to the label are
Midnight Red,
Porcelain Black,
Ahmed Chawki, Sophia Del Carmen, Kika and Wayne Beckford. RedOne Records also promotes SuperMartXé events productions. In 2015, RedOne announced that he is working on his debut album entitled
RedOne Presents. He declared that he would like to collaborate with Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias,
Stevie Wonder, and
Lionel Richie for the album. Also in 2015, he started working in
country music by co-writing and co-producing
The Band Perry's song "
Live Forever", the first single off their upcoming third studio album. RedOne signed a recording contract with
Warner Bros. Records in January 2016. His first single with Warner Bros., "
Don't You Need Somebody" was released on 20 May 2016 and features
Enrique Iglesias,
R. City,
Serayah, and
Shaggy. On his transition from producer to being an artist RedOne has said: "I thought that to be a performer, you had to stick to a single sound, and I loved too many kinds of music to do that. But now I find myself wanting to get back to singing and playing, and friends like Enrique have encouraged me to do so. I want to be an artist in a new way, rather than the traditional one. I'm going to do it the RedOne way, which is creating different sounds with different people, doing the records I want to do". On 15 May 2018, Social Media Sensation Saad Abid helped RedOne Support Morocco's bid for the
2026 FIFA World Cup under the #Maymkench2026. In the same year, he produced the song "Festival" where he collaborated with the Mexican
YouTuber group Los Polinesios. In December 2021, he was appointed Creative Entertainment Executive of FIFA, producing the
official soundtrack for the
2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He also went on to produce the
2022 FIFA Club World Cup official song entitled "Welcome to Morocco", that took place in
Morocco. He wrote and produced the official anthem for the COP28 Summit that took place in Dubai in December 2023. In June 2024, RedOne was appointed by
Florentino Pérez to produce the new anthem for
Real Madrid. ==Production and songwriting==