Beloved Persian music master
MOHAMMAD REZA SHAJARIAN | 1940-2020
TEHRAN, Iran — Mohammad Reza Shajarian, whose distinctive voice quavered to traditional Persian music on state radio for years before supporting protesters following Iran’s contested 2009 election, has died, state TV reported Thursday. He was 80.
Mr. Shajarian enlivened Iran’s traditional music with his singing style, which soared, swooped and trilled over long-known poetry set to song. But the later years of his life saw him forced to only perform abroad, after he backed those who challenged the disputed reelection of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by telling state radio to stop using his songs.
The TV report said he died on Thursday, following a long battle with cancer. Mr. Shajarian’s son, Homayoun, tweeted that his father “flew” to meet the heavens.
Mr. Shajarian’s political stand surprised many in Iran, especially among the young who considered him a crooner of a past age. Though he once changed his name to avoid his conservative father’s opposition to his singing, Mr. Shajarian supported Iran’s movement against the American-backed shah. He resigned his position with Iranian state radio ahead of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
After the revolution, it was Mr. Shajarian’s powerful voice on the radio that sang a prayer before sunset during the holy month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. He sang it a cappella, like a call coming from a mosque minaret, with teeming emotion that raised goosebumps even through scratchy radio broadcasts. In sold-out concerts, fans pelted him with roses.
Supported by the apparatus of Iran’s clericrun system, no one expected to hear his voice rise to support the opposition in the unrest surrounding the 2009 balloting. At the time, Ahmadinejad won a contested vote count that sparked massive protests and a security force crackdown that saw thousands detained, dozens killed and others tortured.