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Arash Labaf آرش لباف
Arash (2009)
Background information
Born	(1977-04-23) April 23, 1977 (age 36) 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 in Las Vegas

Alex Arash Labaf (Persian: آرش لباف‎, born 23 April 1977) is an Iranian-Swedish singer, entertainer and producer.

Early life

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 Azerbaijani.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} In an interview with Arash emphasized: "My great-grandfather was an Azeri so I always feel my Azerbaijani roots."^[7]

Career

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."^[8]

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!.

Arash's records were certified gold in 5 countries: his album Arash in Germany, Russia, Slovenia and Greece and single "Boro Boro" in Sweden.^[9] This song was also featured in the Hindi Bollywood film Bluffmaster! and he was the featured Artist of the Month on MTV India.

Collaborations

Rebecca Zadig and Arash in a concert in Las Vegas, December 2008

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.^[10]

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.^[11][12][13]

Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Aysel and Arash in the Green Room during the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

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.^[14][15] The song qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest final which took place on 16 May 2009, and was placed third.

Personal life

Labaf married his long-term fiancée, Behnaz Ansari, in Dubai in May 2011.^[16][17]

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other singles/videos that did not chart include:

• 2006: "Music Is My Language" (feat. DJ Aligator)
• 2006: "Iran Iran"
• 2007: "Yalla"
• 2008: "Donya" (feat. Shaggy)
• 2009: "Behnaz"
• 2009: "Baskon" (feat. Timbuktu)
• 2009: "Kandi" feat. Lumidee
• 2009: "Près de toi (Suddenly)" (Najim feat. Arash and Rebecca)
• 2010: "Dasa Bala" (feat. Timbuktu, Aylar, YAG)
• 2010: "Glorious" (Official song for Men's Handball World Championship 2011 in Sweden)
• 2011: "Melody"

Filmography

• 2005: Bluffmaster! as playback singer
• 2012: Rhinos Season (in post-production)

Music videos

Arash has worked with a number of directors for his video including Alec Cartio and Fred Khoshtinat. Alec Cartio's directed videos include Arash's "Temptation" (with Rebecca Zadig), also "Boro Boro", "Tike Tike" and "Iran Iran". Fred Khoshtinat directed Arash hits include "Dasa Bala" (feat. Aylar, Timbuktu and Yag) and "Broken Angel" (feat. Helena).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arash Labaf

• Official website
• Arash at MySpace
• Arashfans.com
• Official forum
• Arash at warnermusic.de
• Arash at the Internet Movie Database
• Arash at the Internet Movie Database (2)

v t e Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest   Participation 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013   Artists 2000s Elnur & Samir Aysel & Arash 2010s Safura Ell & Nikki Sabina Babayeva Farid Mammadov   Songs 2000s "Day After Day" "Always" 2010s "Drip Drop" "Running Scared" "When the Music Dies" "Hold Me" (Note: Entries scored out are when Azerbaijan did not compete)