Marzieh

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The first lady of Persian music, now in her early eighties, has been one of the most outstanding figures the artistic society of Iran has ever seen. Marzieh has touched the hearts of millions of people by her lovely performances and songs that will be whispered forever. As long as music exists, Marzieh will be remembered and highly respected at the horizons of the music world of Iran.

Marzieh began her career in 1940s. She started out by singing a number of very traditional songs by Sheydaa of Isphahan, a Persian poet and musician of mid-nineteenth century. Legend has it that Sheydaa was in love with a lady called Marzieh and that was how Marzieh got her artistic nickname.

In the two decades that followed an artisitc competition arouse between the fans of Marzieh and her major rival, the other legendary diva of Persian traditional music, Delkash. Followers of Marzieh preferred her high-pitched voice, more appropriate for happy songs to the deeper and more sorrowful voice of Delkash.

She has enormous number of songs and almost all of them seem familiar to the Iranians. Like other female singers in Iran, Marzieh became silent in 1979 and no longer appeared on any stages of her homeland to sing for her people. In 1990s, she left Iran due to her political ideas and joined one of the anti-government organizations abroad. Soon after she left the country, she performed several concerts in Los Angeles (1995), and later in Earl's Court (London in 1996). She was stranded in Iraq prior to the coalition invasion of that country, until the Jordan government let her transit through Amman to go Paris, where she lives (2003). she is very active in spite of her old age.