Mohammed Saleh Abd al-Saheb Lelo was born in Iraq in 1969. He received a degree in music from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baghdad University, with a major focus on the oud and qanun. As a session musician for Iraqi Broadcasting from 1988 to 1995, he worked with most of the leading Iraqi vocalists. In addition to recordings and performances at major festivals in Iraq, he taught music courses at Baghdad University and Babel University and published articles in local newspapers. He left Iraq due to the unstable situation there, and is currently the oud and qanun player for the Qatar Vision Advertising and Media Production Agency.