Ciwan Haco

Ciwan Haco

Ciwan Haco (born August 17, 1957 near Qamishli , Syria ) is a Kurdish singer from Syria.

Live and act

Ciwan Haco was born on August 17, 1957 in the village of Tirbespiyê near Qamislo. His family belonged to the large landowners in Mardin , who then fled their homeland as a result of the suppression of the Sheikh Said uprising in 1925. Ciwan Haco's father, an estate owner, placed particular emphasis on Ciwan's education. Initially, however, he did not share Ciwan's passion for music. Only the lower classes made music at that time. Despite his father's veto, he loved music and made it part of his life. At the age of 14 he finally published his first compositions. When he was 17 years old, he gave his first concert on a big stage.

After graduating from high school, he came to Germany in 1979 to study musicology at the Ruhr University in Bochum . During his academic years there, he learned less from the lectures than from the concerts and festivals of the 1980s. In particular, he was inspired by three German musicians, including Udo Herbst. Their common path should last 10 years. The influence they exerted on his musical development was decisive. Before that, his music was strongly influenced by traditional Kurdish folk music . It was only with them that Ciwan Haco allowed elements of European and American pop and rock music to flow into his work. On this basis he developed his own forms of interpreting Kurdish folklore and describes his songs as “modern Kurdish music”. This is how a unique style was created.

His stay in Norway perfected his musical language. There he worked with musicians, some of whom have international experience. For example, Paolo Vinaccia (drums / percussion), Stein Bullhanssen (electric guitar), Bugge Wesseltoft (keyboards) and Bendik Hofseth , who repeatedly sets melodic accents with his saxophone, also contribute to his CDs. His music got a new, better quality. At last they could afford professional studio recordings through numerous well-paid concerts. Although he has long been a celebrated star in his homeland, it wasn't until 1991 that he signed his first official recording deal in Norway. In 2004 he received a permit to perform in Turkey. In Batman, he peacefully united 300,000 Turks and Kurds in a spectacular concert at a festival. The last concert on his Turkey tour he held in Istanbul under the motto: "For love and peace". With this concert, he filled a hall that only allows 14,000 people with 25,000 people. Almost all Turkish media reported about this largest solo concert in the history of the Turkish music scene. Another milestone was the concert at a music festival in Diyarbakır . There the artist played alongside other musicians such as İbrahim Tatlıses at the Newroz celebrations in front of a million people. Ciwan Haco played his first film role in a film by the Kurdish director Hiner Saleem called "Dol - Valley of Drums" .

In his songs he proudly expresses that he is closely connected to the life, suffering and struggle of his people in Kurdistan. In his works he talks openly about the 5000 destroyed Kurdish villages and speaks out against the ban on his language. For his texts, however, he is not only inspired by his home country, but also by nature or poems that he sets to music.

It was only when he met his Icelandic wife in 1999 and his two daughters were born that he changed his lyrics and devoted himself to the finer things in life - love and joy. Among other things, he would like to convey this change in his texts: “We Kurds have to change fundamentally. We used to bet on the fight. But today we have to resort to other means. We have to use culture. We have to make good films, good music, good theater. And show that we can also talk about love and sex, not just politics. ”The musician currently lives in Sweden with his wife Iona and their three children, a stepson and two girls. There he humbly enjoys the anonymity that he no longer has in the oriental latitudes. So far Ciwan Haco has released 14 albums and gives concerts all over Europe.

Works

• Gula Sor (German Red Rose) (1983)
• Sî û Sê Gule
• Dûrî (1994) (distant)
• Bilûra Min (Eng. My Flute) (1997)
• Destana Egîdekî
• Çaw Bella
• Leyla
• Peshmerge
• Serhildan
• Diyarbekir
• Girtiyên Azadiyê
• Konsera Batmanê (VCD)
• Well Well (2003)
• Off (2006)
• Felek (Dostum) YAR YAR (2006)
• Zilan
• Veger
• Felek (2018 - Hamburg)

Web links

• Official homepage (Kurdish-English-German)
• Official Facebook homepage