| Arash Labaf آرش لباف | |
|---|---|
Arash (2009) |
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| Background information | |
| Born | April 23, 1977 Tehran, Iran |
| Genres | 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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
| Year | Title | Peak | Certifications/ Notes |
Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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:
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)
| Preceded by Elnur & Samir with "Day After Day" |
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest (with AySel) 2009 |
Succeeded by Safura with "Drip Drop" |
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