20
M
ichael Salloum was born on
May 24 1963 in Woodbrook,
Trinidad to Lebanese parents. He
is the last of 4 boys, and attended
Barbara Roberts private School on
De Verteuil Street, Woodbrook then
St. Mary’s College in Port of Spain.
As a child growing up, he never
realized he had a talent for singing
and playing guitar, although his
Mother was a gifted piano player
and eldest brother played both
piano and guitar from a young age.
Michael was a chubby and playful
kid, and was never really good
at sports even though he pitched
marbles and played football in
the Augustus Williams Park in
Woodbrook. As the youngest
child, he travelled a lot with
his parents and in 1972,
they visited Lebanon for
an extended summer
vacation, where he met
his cousins, uncles and
aunts and had a great
time riding the village
donkey and camels.
When Michael
returned he then sat
the common entrance
exams the following
year and passed for
St. Marys College
Port of Spain where
he only attended until
form 3 before migrating
to a Military Air Force
Academy in Florida,United
States
During his years at St. Mary’s
College, Michael fell in love with
skateboarding after seeing a couple
of his friends doing it at school.
Skateboarding immediately became
the sport that was missing from his
life and Michael skated through the
streets of Woodbrook and in school
whenever he could. He started
losing weight and became more self
confident as his eyes turned to the
girls at the Convent opposite to his
College.
He used to spend time with his
cousin Roger Salloum, who had
Soca Elvis
a drum kit at his home and taught
Michael the basics of drumming.
Soon after, Michael realized that
he had a good sense of rhythm and
timing for playing the drums. With
this new found skill, he was invited
to play drums with the St. Josephs
Convent girls panside for a couple
of their concerts as the school was
lacking drummers at the time.
At St. Mary’s college, there was a
French teacher who pronounced his
surname very fast, so it sounded like
“Zoom”, from that point Michael’s
nickname was born, and no one
ever called him Michael again.
In 1978, Michael left Trinidad
to attend a Military Air Force
Academy in the States and
graduated in 1981, it was
there that he discovered
surfing and fell in love with
the guitar after attending a
few rock concerts.
He also attended the
Palm Beach College
for a short time while
studying business then
returned home in
1983 to join the family
business.
Upon returning home,
Michael teamed up with
his long time pal Joey
Ng Wai and joined the
pop rock band Frantic
and went on to become
the frontline singer and also
played rhythm guitar at times.
After many years as a pop singer,
he decided to jump into the Soca
Michael Salloum
aka
