Arash Labbaf (, ; born 23 April 1977) is an Iranian-Swedish singer, entertainer, and producer. He represented Azerbaijan along with

Aysel Aysel is a feminine Turkish given name popular in Turkey and Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and E ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe (Dima Bilan song), Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the Eu ...

, finishing third with the song "

Always Always may refer to: Film and television * ''Always'', a 1985 film directed by Henry Jaglom * ''Always'' (1989 film), a 1989 romantic comedy-drama directed by Steven Spielberg * ''Always'' (2011 film), a 2011 South Korean film, also known as ''O ...

". He is also one of the judges of '' Persia's Got Talent'', a Persian franchise of the British talent show ''

Got Talent ''Got Talent'' is a British talent show TV format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment. It has spawned spin-offs in over 60 countries, in what is now referred to as the 'Got Talent' format, similar to that described by Frema ...

''.

Early life

Arash Labbaf was born in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, Iran to an ethnic Azerbaijani family. He and his parents lived near

Mellat Park Mellat Park ( ), literally the Nation Park, is an urban park in northern Tehran, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaij ...

. At age ten, he and his family moved to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, where he still resides. In an interview with

BBC Persian Television BBC Persian Television ( Televizion-e Fârsi-ye BBC) is the BBC's Persian language news channel that was launched on 14 January 2009. The service is broadcast by satellite and is also available online. It is aimed at the 120 million Persian-sp ...

, he mentioned that his mother and father are from the Iranian cities of

Shiraz Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...

and

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

, respectively. Arash Labbaf has stated in his interviews that he is interested in association football. Accordingly, he released songs about association football. Also, in an interview with

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

, Arash stated that he had been interested in singing since childhood and he even formed an informal band with his friends.

Career

Arash labbaf said that the reason he chooses to sing in his

native language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

is because of his "deep attachment to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Persian culture The culture of Iran () or culture of PersiaYarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) is one of the oldest and among the most influential in the world. Iran (Persia) is widely regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.

." His debut album, ''Arash'', was released by

Warner Music Sweden Warner Music Sweden AB (previously Metronome Records) is a Swedish record company and label, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. The Swedish division of WMG is a successor to Metronome Records, which was established in 1949 by Anders Burman, Lar ...

in June 2005, after he had finished college. His singles, " Boro Boro" ("Go Away") and "

Temptation Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...

" (featuring

Rebecca Rebecca () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical tradition, Rebecca's father was Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, also called Aram-Naharaim. Rebecca's brother was Laban (Bi ...

) made it to the hit lists around

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Their respective videos garnered significant airplay on more than 20 MTV outlets worldwide. In addition to successes in his home countries' music charts, namely Sweden and Iran, the platinum-selling singer and producer Arash has had hits notably in Eastern European and South-East European charts like Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Turkey and in Asian music charts like in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and throughout the Arab Middle Eastern countries. His singles have been charted many times on the Swiss and Finnish charts and he is especially famous in Poland. Arash's records were certified gold in 5 countries: his album ''Arash'' in Germany, Russia, Slovenia, and Greece and the single "Boro Boro" in

. This song was also featured in the Hindi

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

film ''

Bluffmaster! ''Bluffmaster!'' is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film directed by Rohan Sippy and produced by Ramesh Sippy. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Mishra, Boman Irani and Nana Patekar. It is ...

'' and he was the featured Artist of the Month on

MTV India MTV is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of the original American network and is owned by JioStar, under a license agreement with Par ...

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...

did not take part in the music video of " Pure Love", although her voice was used in it. The video starred Arash, together with the

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n beauty queen,

Marianne Puglia Marianne Pasqualina Puglia Martinez (born 26 January 1985) is a Venezuelan actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She won Miss Earth - Fire title in 2006. Pageantry & Modelling At the age of 20, she won Miss Aragua 2005 title and partici ...

. Arash has produced along with Thomas G:son,

Robert Uhlmann Robert Erik Uhlmann (born 14 March 1968) is a Swedish media executive and composer who has written/produced music for the artists Dr. Alban, Jonny Jakobsen, Arash (singer), Arash, Basshunter, Margaret (singer), Margaret, Samantha Fox, Shaggy (m ...

, and Johan Bejerholm the Swedish entry to the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the eighth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Minsk, Belarus. It was held on 20 November 2010. The contest was won by Vladimir Arzumanyan from Armenia with the song "Mama (V ...

"Allt jag vill ha" that was performed by

Josefine Ridell Sweden was represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2010, with Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) having returned to organise the Swedish entry for the first time since 2005, after TV4 had withdrawn prior to the contest. A ...

Eurovision Song Contest

In early 2009, it was revealed that the

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

I entry for the

would be the song "

" which was written and composed by Arash. The song was performed by

Aysel Teymurzadeh Aysel Teymurzadeh (; born 25 April 1989, Baku) is an Azerbaijani pop and R&B singer. She represented Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 alongside Arash with the song " Always", finishing third. Biography Aysel was born in the Az ...

and Arash in a duet in Semifinal 2 of the

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

competition. The song qualified for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

final which took place on 16 May 2009, and was placed third. In one of his interviews, Arash explained his decision to represent Azerbaijan in this contest: "Why did I participate? I'm originally thnicallyAzeri, and I would like to have a part in this country's confident ascent in the history of Eurovision."

Personal life

Labaf married his longtime fiancée, Behnaz Ansari, in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

in May 2011.

Discography

Studio albums * ''

Arash Arash the Archer () is a heroic archer-figure of Iranian mythology. According to Iranian folklore, the boundary between Iran and Turan was set by an arrow launched by Arash, after he put his own life in the arrow's launch. The arrow was tra ...

'' (2005) * '' Donya'' (2008) * ''

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

'' (2014)

Filmography

*2005: ''

'' as playback singer *2012: '' Rhinos Season'' as Son (as Twins/Male)

References

External links

Official websiteArash
at warnermusic.de * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arash 1977 births Living people Folk-pop singers Iranian musicians Swedish pop singers Singers from Tehran Iranian pop singers Swedish male singers Iranian Azerbaijanis Extensive Music artists English-language singers of Iran Persian-language singers of Iran English-language singers from Sweden Persian-language singers of Sweden Iranian record producers Warner Music Group artists Iranian singer-songwriters Iranian male singer-songwriters Iranian emigrants to Sweden Warner Music Sweden artists 21st-century Swedish singers Iranian expatriates in Sweden 21st-century Iranian male singers 21st-century Swedish male singers Swedish people of Azerbaijani descent Iranian people of Azerbaijani descent Winners of the Golden Gramophone Award Eurovision Song Contest entrants