Ferras

Ferras Mahmoud Alqaisi ( ; ; born July 2, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter of Jordanian origin. He is well known for his single "Hollywood's Not America" from his debut album Aliens & Rainbows, which was featured as the exit song during the semi-final round of American Idol season 7. He is signed with Unsub Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records founded by Katy Perry, being the first artist to sign with her label.

Early life and education

Ferras was born in 1982 in Illinois. After his parents divorced when he was an early age, his father promised him a trip to Disneyland and instead took him back to Amman, Jordan, his father's homeland. His mother eventually succeeded in bringing him back to the United States, eventually moving to Southern California. He also attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Career

Ferras' career began when he was in Amman with his father. He practiced music on a small keyboard that his father gave him and began to write his own songs. The album was produced by The Matrix and Gary Clark. The album features the lead single "Hollywood's Not America," which was used as the "exit song" during the semi-final round of the seventh season of the American reality series American Idol before being replaced by a single from Ruben Studdard. which peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also performed the song during his first national television performance on The Today Show. In late September 2010, the song was a #1 single in Finland. In June 2010, Australian singer Michael Paynter released the song "Love the Fall" featuring The Veronicas which was co-written by Ferras and Gary Clark. It became the most added song to Australian radio in the first week of July and was the first top-20 single on the ARIA chart for Paynter, and was later certified Platinum.

Ferras continued concentrating on songwriting and in January 2011, German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut performed the song "Good News" which was co-written by Ferras and Audra Mae for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Four tracks co-written by Ferras were also included on the Ricky Martin record "Musica+Alma+Sexo" which was released on February 1, 2011. Ferras co-wrote the song "Galaxy" with Richard Vission and was released as a duet by Australian recording artists Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker in 2011. The song was released digitally in October 2011 as the fifth single from Mauboy's second studio album. It peaked at number 13 on the Aria Singles Chart and number seven on the Aria Urban Singles Chart. It was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling over 70,000 digital copies. "Galaxy" also debuted at number 40 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.

Ferras released his self-titled EP on June 17, 2014, after becoming the first artist to sign with Katy Perry's Metamorphosis Music. The first single of the album is titled "Speak in Tongues". The album also features a ballad called "Legends Never Die", which is a duet with Ferras and Perry. The EP contains a total of five songs and was released on iTunes.

In 2025, Ferras appeared on the Netflix music docu-reality series Hitmakers.

Ferras co-wrote "Eclipse" with Australian singer Delta Goodrem, Jonas Myrin and Michael Fatkin. The song, released as a single on 1 March 2026, was selected to represent Australia at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. In the United Kingdom, the single debuted at number 34 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart on 6 March 2026.

Discography

Studio albums Title Details Aliens & RainbowsReleased: April 1, 2008

Extended plays Title DetailsInterim - The Time BetweenReleased: July 2, 2010FerrasReleased: June 17, 2014

Singles

Songwriting credits