Songs of hope from the Iranian-Swedish Laleh

ShahrzadNews: At the presentation ceremony in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, a young girl sang with the Norwegian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Her fine voice and heartfelt rendition of ‘The best sometimes die young’ so impressed the audience that they began to join in as if they already knew the words.

This singer was the Iranian artist Laleh. She had written the song earlier that year, in memory of the victims of the tragic Breivik massacre. Born in 1982, Laleh Pourkarim is a familiar face in the Scandinavian musical world. In the early 1980s, at the height of the Iranian regime’s repression of dissidents, three-year-old Laleh went into exile with her family, initially to the Soviet Union. Later they settled in Sweden, where she studied saxophone, guitar and piano. She appeared in the 2000 film Jalla! Jalla!, but then turned from acting to singing. Her first album – released in 2005 – was an overnight success, topping the Swedish charts for several weeks. Her second album the following year was equally successful. In 2005 she was named Swedish Artist of the Year, and the music industry awarded her prizes for best creative artist, best songwriter and best music producer. Now thirty years old, Laleh has released four major albums, the latest of which has made her a popular superstar. As well as Swedish, Laleh sings in English, Spanish and Persian.

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