- Arash (entertainer)
-
Not to be confused with Arash Howaida.
Arash Labaf آرش لباف 
Arash (2009)Background information Born April 23, 1977
Tehran,
IranGenres Persian pop, Hip hop, R&B, Dance music, House Occupations Singer, DJ Years active 2005–present Labels Warner Music Scandinavia (WEA) Website www.arash.com Arash Labaf (Persian: آرش لباف, born 23 April 1977) is an Iranian-Swedish singer, dancer, entertainer and producer.
Contents
Early life
Arash Labaf was born in Tehran, Iran. At age ten, he and his family moved to Sweden, where he still resides. In an interview with BBC Persian Television, he has mentioned that his mother and father are from the Iranian cities of Shiraz and Isfahan, respectively.[1] Also in one of his interviews, he stated his great grandfather is Iranian Azeri.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] In an interview with Arash emphasized: "My great-grandfather was an Azeri so I always feel my Azerbaijani roots.".[9] Consequently his family moved to Malmö, Sweden. He resides in Malmö when he is not on tour and considers it his hometown.
Career
Arash has said that the reason he chooses to sing in his native language is because of his "deep attachment to Iran and Persian culture."[10]
His debut album, Arash, was released by the Warner Music Sweden in June 2005, after he had finished college. His singles, "Boro Boro" ("Go Away") and "Temptation" (featuring Rebecca Zadig) made it to the hit lists around Europe, and their respective videos garnered significant airplay on more than 20 MTV outlets across the world.
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 charted many times on Swiss and Finnish charts and he is especially famous in Poland. His song "Boro Boro" was featured in Indian Bollywood movie Bluffmaster!.
His album Arash was certified gold in 5 countries: Germany, Russia, Slovenia and Greece and in Sweden for the single "Boro Boro" went gold.[11] This song was also featured in the Hindi Bollywood film Bluffmaster! and he was the featured Artist of the Month on MTV India. He made a guest appearance in the movie as well as a DJ singing "Boro Boro".
Arash is managed by former Warner Music A&R agent Henrik Uhlmann, and is represented in the United States by Mayar Zokaei.
Collaborations
Arash's claim to fame, his hit "Temptation" was a collaboration with Swedish singer Rebecca Zadig.
Another collaboration of Arash was with Pakistani-Danish singer Anila Mirza in the hit "Chori Chori" and the three-way collaboration between Arash / Aneela / Rebecca Zadig in "Bombay Dreams"
Arash has released a Russian song; "Восточные Сказки" (Vostochnyie Skazki) (featuring Блестящие Blestyashchie), a Russian version of "Temptation", in which he sings in Russian and the Russian version became a big hit in Russian charts. In Russia, Arash recorded several other singles with Russia's popular performers: Anna Semenovich (На моря), Крёстная Семья (Baskon)
DJ Aligator (also of Persian origin) appeared in Arash's music video for "Music is My Language" as the producer and rapper.
The song "Suddenly" features Rebecca Zadig, whereas his song "Man o to" features Slovak singer Lucia.
In his 2006 album (Crossfade), Arash, DJ Aligator and Shahkar Bineshpajoo made a song for the Iranian Football team for their appearance in the 2006 World Cup.
Arash released in March 2008 his third album, Donya, featuring a reggaeton/dancehall influenced single "Donya" in collaboration with Shaggy and the single "Kandi" featuring the New York star Lumidee. Other singles include "Suddenly" (featuring Rebecca), "Pure Love" (featuring Helena), and "Dasa Bala" (featuring Timbuktu). Music videos were made for "Donya", "Suddenly", "Pure Love", "Kandi" (for its 2009 re-release) and "Dasa bala"
Helena did not take part in the music video of "Pure Love", although her voice was used in it. The video was starred by Arash, together with the Venezuelan beauty queen, Marianne Puglia.[12]
Arash has produced along with Thomas G:son, Robert Uhlmann, and Johan Bejerholm the Swedish entry to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 "Allt jag vill ha" that was performed by Josefine Ridell.[13][14][15] He also wrote and performed the song "Glorious" for the 22nd Men's Handball World Championship 2011 in Sweden in support of the Swedish National Handball Team for Men.
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
In early 2009, it was revealed that the Azerbaijani entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 would be the song "Always" which was written and composed by Arash. The song was performed by Aysel Teymurzadeh and Arash in a duet in Semifinal 2 of the Eurovision competition.[16][17] The song qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest final which took place on 16 May 2009, and was placed third.
Personal life
He has two younger brothers, Ashkan Labaf, a doctor, and Arsalan Labaf, a lawyer.
Labaf married his long-term fiancee, Behnaz Ansari, on the Persian Gulf coast of Dubai in May 2011.[18][19].
Discography
Discography
- 2005: Arash
- 2006: Crossfade (The Remix Album)
- 2008: Donya
Singles
Year Title Peak Certifications/
NotesAlbum FIN SWE SUI 2004 "Boro Boro" 12 1 8 Arash 2005 "Tike tike kardia" - 2 - "Temptation" feat. Rebecca 15 2 42 2006 "Arash" 8 20 - "Chori Chori" Aneela feat. Arash 5 - 82 Donya 2008 "Suddenly" feat. Rebecca - 8 - 2009 "Pure Love" feat. Helena 19 - - "Always" by AySel and Arash - 3 98 Eurovision entry for Azerbaijan in 2009.
Also charted in Greece (#2), Ukraine (#4), Czech Republic (#40), Hungary (#40), Slovakia (#47), Germany (#96) and UK (#137)Non-album release Other singles/videos that did not chart include:
- 2007: "Yalla"
- 2008: "Donya" (Arash feat. Shaggy)
- 2009: "Behnaz"
- 2009: "Kandi" feat. Lumidee
- 2009: "Près de toi (Suddenly)" (Najim feat. Arash and Rebecca
- 2010: "Broken Angel" (feat. Helena)
- 2010: "Dasa Bala" (feat. Timbuktu, Aylar, YAG)
- 2010: "Glorious" (Official song for Men's Handball World Championship 2011 in Sweden)
- 2011: "Melody"
Filmography
- 2005: Bluffmaster! as playback singer
- 2012: Rhinos Season (in post-production)
Music videos
Arash has worked with a number of directors for his video including Alec Cartio and Fred Khoshtinat. Fred directed the Arash hits "Dasa Bala" feat. Aylar, Timbuktu and Yag, (April 2010) and "Broken Angel" feat. Helena (Dec 2010)
References
- ^ "Arash's Iranian family from Sweden". BBC (interview by Behzad Bolour). 2008-09-11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2005/02/050211_ag-arash-interview.shtml. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
- ^ http://www.eurovisionary.com/node/2406
- ^ http://en.itv.az/eurovisionsong/202.html
- ^ http://eurovision.1tv.ru/member_id434_1.html
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/entertainment/2009/05/090516_eurovision_preview.shtml
- ^ Arash Biography at Eurovision.tv
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGrjeC2NuNw
- ^ [Aysel and Arash interview http://esckaz.com/2009/aze.htm#interview]
- ^ The Great Big Eurovision Experiment 2009 – Azerbaijan
- ^ "Iran: Arash Tops European Pop Charts With Persian-Language Hits". RFE/RL. 2005-04-21. http://www.rferl.org/Content/Article/1058593.html. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
- ^ http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=24728&event=1482
- ^ "ARASH - "Pure Love" - Making Of The Video". YouTube. 2008-11-17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkT9NMN5mAM. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/1.459519-josefine-tavlar-for-sverige-i-minsk
- ^ http://esckaz.com/jesc/2010/swe.htm
- ^ http://www.escsweden.com/junior.htm
- ^ Brey, Marco (2009-02-05). "Azerbaijani entry written by Arash". Eurovision.tv. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1884. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
- ^ Siim, Jarmo (2009-02-12). "Azerbaijan to send a duet to Eurovision". Eurovision.tv. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1909. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- ^ http://www.apa.az/en/news.php?id=144914%7Caccessdate=30/09/2011%7C
- ^ http://chuiko.com/entertainment/3926-arash-married-on-may-28-in-dubai.html
External links
- Official website
- Arash at MySpace
- Official Forum
- Arashfans.com
- Arash at warnermusic.de
- Arash (entertainer) at the Internet Movie Database
- Arash (entertainer) at the Internet Movie Database (2)
Preceded by
Elnur & Samir
with "Day After Day"Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
(with AySel)
2009Succeeded by
Safura
with "Drip Drop"Singles "Always" (with Aysel)Related subjects Azerbaijan in ESC 2009Categories:- 1977 births
- Living people
- Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2009
- Azerbaijani Eurovision Song Contest entrants
- Indian film singers
- Iranian pop singers
- Iranian singers
- Iranian people of Azerbaijani descent
- People from Tehran
- Swedish people of Iranian descent
- Warner Music Group artists
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