Liraz at Pohoda 2020

Visitors of Pohoda 2020 can look forward to seeing Iranian-Israeli singer, dancer, songwriter, and actress Liraz (having played in movies such as Fair Game and A Late Quarter, for example). In her musical project, Liraz combines modern sounds and beats of Los Angeles and Tel Aviv with ethnic flavors of her Persian / Tehran roots. In November she released the song Zan Beran – her personal statement on and call for gender equality. The pulsating electro-pop flavor of the track is the first taste of her upcoming second album, which will be released in late May and which Liraz will present on the Trenčin airstrip this summer.

12. March 2020

Liraz’s family emigrated to Israel in the 1970s on the brink of the Iranian Revolution. Israel is where Liraz then grew up, in an Iranian community that held on to many of their traditions. However, a painful memory of a country left behind and to which members of her family can never return remains engraved in her. During a visit to Los Angeles, and specifically to a neighborhood with a predominately Persian population nicknamed “Teherangeles”, Liraz was met with new sounds and personal stories of well-known Persian singers such as Googoosh and Dariush. They inspired her to return to her roots, leading to her present-day performances to now be interwoven with traditional Iranian music and Persian cultural elements. Her new project is a combination of original music and the works of forbidden Iranian artists. In this way, Liraz is becoming a new voice for lost Iranian expression in the world, best demonstrating these influences on her 2017 album Naz. Her new release Zan Bezan shows that her new album will follow a similar current.