Selim was born in Cairo, the daughter of pianist Marcelle Matta and painter Ahmed Fouad Selim. After studying piano, ballet and painting, she started voice training and Italian repertoire in Italy with soprano Gabriella Ravazzi in 1993 and graduated from the Cairo Conservatoire in 1999.[1] In October 2001, she received a scholarship from the French Government to study with soprano Caroline Dumas at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she obtained the Diplôme supérieur de concertiste in 2004.[1]