Born Mayada Bent Bakri El Hennawy in a music-loving family, she was discovered by Egyptian composer musician, and singer-songwriter Mohamed Abdel Wahab when at the age of 18, she was performing in Bloudan, Syria.

Abdel Wahab named her "The Songstress of the Generation" (in Arabic مطربة الجيل transliterated as Moutribat el Jeel).

After her album Touba, she went on a hiatus for many years, surfacing only with some Arab nationalist songs on certain occasions for Syria, Palestine,[4] Algeria,[5] Tunisia, Kurdistan[6] etc.

But later launched a new album in 2007 that includes a song written by Baligh Hamdi and originally destined to be sung by Oum Kulthoum.

[7] She has also been very verbal in supporting the Bashar al-Assad government [8] which reportedly led to Kuwaiti authorities banning her from a concert scheduled during the Hala Febrayer music festival in Kuwait.