Elias Shahna was born in Kabul Afghanistan and since 1990 he is living in Germany. When asked from which province Afghanistan he comes and to which ethnical group he belongs, he answers: I love all people in Afghanistan, I belong to all ethnical groups and to all provinces of Afghanistan.

After having finished Habibia high school in Kabul, he started studying medicine, but soon had to give up his studies because his family decided to leave Afghanistan, as the conditions there were growing increasingly insecure.

Elias had to start anew, first completing a career as a businessman, and finished 2011 economics at the University of Hamburg. But his true love has always been music, which he had learned and practiced first with his uncle, Fitrat Nashinas, and then with his Ustad Reza Ali Khan. He created and registered his first song "Manzile wairan" in 1994, under his artist's name Shahna, and has composed until now eight more music albums. After more than 13 years of absence, he returned to Kabul to help with the German humanitarian organization GTZ. During his stay, he organized two important performances for students in Kabul. He is the first artist ever invited by Ariana TV (ATN) to give two concerts in Kabul.