Born to Iranian parents, Shida Shahabi grew up in Stockholm, where she developed her passion for music. Raised on the classical works of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, she began composing her own music at the age of nine. By eleven, inspired by some of the greatest names in British rock, she had turned her attention to punk and grunge. Signed to the prestigious neo-classical label FatCat Records, Shida released her critically acclaimed debut album Homes in 2018, followed by the EP Shifts. Since then, she has toured extensively across Europe, including opening performances for PJ Harvey and Colin Stetson.

In 2023, she collaborated with choreographer Halla Ólafsdóttir on Sylph, a dance production performed throughout Europe. That same year, she released her second album, Living Circle, a carefully crafted blend of classical and electronic elements, combining ambient techniques with traditional compositional structures. Rich in textural detail, her music evokes an elusive emotional resonance through deeply atmospheric and elegantly restrained compositions.

Alongside her solo career, Shida has established herself as a film composer, creating sophisticated scores infused with the hypnotic sonic language she has developed as a self-taught composer. She began her journey into film scoring with the animated short The Burden by Nikki Lindroth von Bahr, which received awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the Sundance Film Festival, and TIFF. She then composed the score for Maria Eriksson’s short film Schoolyard Blues, which was selected for TIFF Kids, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and the Olympia International Film Festival. The collaboration continued in 2021 with the short film Alvaret.

In 2020, Shida composed the score for Afsaneh Salari’s The Silhouettes, followed by Charlotte Le Bon’s acclaimed Falcon Lake, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. More recently, she has composed the original scores for two feature films: Lovely, Dark and Deep by Teresa Sutherland and Else by Thibault Emin.