Aref

Persian

Aref (Aref Arefkia) was born in Tehran, Iran on August 10, 1941 and was one of the first Iranian pop artists of his time. Aref’s introduction to music came in part by his azari mother and by listening to Radio Baku as a child. Radio Baku played exceptional azari and western music as well as all the famous European operas. At a time when the only kind of popular music was in Tasnif style, Aref introduced Western melodies with romantic lyrics to Iran in the 1960's. Aref was one of the pioneers of this trend. This style was quite popular among the youth, so much that at the age of 21 he was invited to appeare and sing on the Iranian National Television. Aref's first TV appearance was with an Assyrian-Iranian girl named Narmela. The two performed many duets, most notably Haft Asemoon. Aref later sang in other duets with Pooran, Elaheh, Hayedeh, Delkash and also Ramesh. Aref and Hayedeh's song Vaghti to hasti, asemoon por az noore is one of the most beautiful songs left from that period. His first hit was Daryacheye Noor which is still popular among all the Iranians. Aref was also a very popular singer for movie soundtracks. His songs were heard on numerous Iranian films of the 1960's & early 1970's among which Gholam Gandarm and Soltan-e Ghalbha are the most famous. He also appeared in six different musical films. His success continued well into the mid 1970's. This is evident when one looks at the pop magazines of the time. In a survey conducted by Javanan Magazine Aref an...