Iran arrests musician as song with crowd-sourced lyrics goes viral
One of Iran’s most popular musicians has been arrested after the song he wrote using the words of ordinary Iranians voicing their anguish and anger in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of the morality police went viral.
The lyrics to Shervin Hajipour’s song Baraye are entirely made up of messages that average Iranians have posted online about why they are protesting. Each message begins with the word Baraye which means “For” or “Because of …” in Farsi.
English Translation of Baraye
For the sake of dancing in the street
For the fear in the moment of kissing
For my sister, your sister, our sisters
For changing the eroded brains
For the shame, For the poverty
For the yearning for a normal life
For the sake of the poor child that searches in the garbage, and their dreams
For this authoritarian economy
For this polluted air
For Vali-‘asr and the withered trees
For Piruz and his probable extinction
For the innocent forbidden dogs
For the non-stop crying
For the dream of reminiscing about this moment in history
For a laughing face
For the students, For the future
For this mandatory “paradise”
For the imprisoned intellectuals
For the Afghan children
For all of this, For the lack of repetition
For all this hollow slogans
For the ruins of these badly-built houses
For the feeling of peace and tranquility
For the sun after long nights
For the mental illness pills and insomnia
For men, fatherland, prosperity
For the sake of the girl that wished she was a boy
For women, life, freedom
For freedom
For freedom
For freedom
Onlne videos show the song being sung by schoolgirls in Iran, barring from cars in Tehran, and played at protests in Washington, Strasbourg, and London.
The singer has now been released on bail after he deleted the song from Instagram. But others are posting it online.
A video of the song created using artificial intelligence also captures the mood.
Grammy Campaign
A campaign has started to encourage both the public and voting members to nominate the song for a Grammy in the best song for social change category.
