The Legend – Hasan Zirak

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Birth of the legend
Hasan Zirak, the legendary Kurdish singer, was born in the rural Iranian Kurdish village of Bokan in 1921, just one year after the post-WWI Treaty of Sèvres set out a yet unrealised vision for autonomy for this diverse region, whose rich history stretches back to classical antiquity and into a present-day territory spanning Iraq, Iran, Türkiye and Syria. Even as a youth he entranced listeners with his singing, earning the nickname “Zirak” (“clever boy”), which stuck. He lived an itinerant life, leaving his village after his father’s death and by age 15 moving to the city of Tabriz, then the Iranian capital Tehran, then the Iraqi Kurdish capital Slemani.
Rising star
Zirak was an improviser – unusually for the time, composing his own lyrics (often with intimate and sultry themes) and combining them with traditional folk songs and popular poems. After moving again, this time to the Iraqi capital Baghdad, he was spotted singing at a hotel, which led to an introduction to the Kurdish broadcasting arm of Radio Baghdad. Thus began his professional singing career in 1953. A few years later, he returned to Iran to perform for the prestigious stations Radio Tehran and Radio Kermanshah. At the time, radio stations were the only locations in the region with professional recording equipment, and all recordings were for live broadcast. However, it was also a golden era of home recording at private parties, with local tapers bringing sophisticated reel-to-reel equipment. For Zirak the appeal was clear: in addition to an attentive audience, private homes could host a mixed crowd, and he was known for joking that he couldn’t perform unless there was a woman in the room.