On this day in 1944, the great Iranian singer-songwriter Farhad Mehrad was born. I don’t really know that much about him — and I’m not sure how reliable Wikipedia is regarding him. And even though I’ve listened to a lot of his music, I have no idea what the lyrics are. The music speaks for itself, I think. And the emotion comes through very clearly in his singing.
He was very successful before the Iranian revolution. And he supported the revolution — even writing a song, “Vahdat” — that was kind of an anthem for it. But as often happens in revolutions, the most reactionary factions take control. After the revolution, the theocratic government refused to allow him to release any of his music. So for roughly 14 years, he didn’t do music publicly. Then, in 1993, he started releasing music and performing. Sadly, he died less than a decade later of Hepatitis C at the age of 58.
Here is the song “Marde Tanha,” which first brought him to fame:
And here is a short set of songs performed later in his life:
Happy birthday Farhad Mehrad!
I didn’t know about him but thanks for giving him a blog post, at least people will recognize him and will know his works. Kudos to you!
Thanks. I featured a song from him last year. I really do like him, and it is always nice to feature people who aren’t that well know — to us Americans anyway. My understanding is that he’s kind of a legend in Iran.
He sang a lot of cover English Music , better than original song.
I suggested some of them for listen to you on his profile in Soundcloud, like Don’t cry for me Argentina, Take five, Master song, If you go away, Romance of love, Come down Jesus, Yesterday, Sunrise/Sunset, I put a spell on you, California dream in, Together again, When the sun comes down, Qui (French song) and many others. He got title of Iran’s Ray Charles in 1971. Unfortunately as it should nobody didn’t know his talent in Iran.
http://soundcloud.com/farhad-mehrad