Ashoor Z.Moradian

According to Pars , citing Navad newspaper, Mazyar Fallahi, Iran’s king of love songs, released the album "Damn Me" (Lanat Be Man) last year to a warm reception; the album was even reissued a second time.

Fallahi, who has always said everywhere that he is a Persepolis fan, performed at the Ameneh orphanage in front of AC Milan legends and cheered on his team at Azadi Stadium; this time he met his fans at the Milad Hall of the Tehran International Exhibition Center. Since he is a “Red”, his fans in the hall chanted "Ghermezeteh" (“it’s all red”), and after the derby there was a special buzz in the hall.

On Sunday night, which coincided with the birthdays of the Prophet Muhammad and Imam Jafar Sadiq, Mazyar took the stage for his winter concert. The hall was packed to the rafters, and for 30 minutes before Mazyar came on stage everyone was cheering him and chanting for the Reds.

The concert had a snowy theme, and thanks to the excellent set designer Kamran Malek Motiei, the atmosphere was lovely. Snow-covered pine trees and a few benches on stage delighted every fan.

As the crowd cheered, Mazyar’s band members walked on stage, and Ashoor Moradian, the band’s high-energy drummer, asked the audience the moment he arrived to bring the house down with whistles and applause. Ashoor is a Persepolis fan through and through, and he adores Ali Karimi!

* Black and white

After the band members came on stage dressed all in black, Mazyar Fallahi, in his trademark style and dressed all in white, appeared as the first song, "Damn Me", began, and the crowd gave him a huge welcome on hearing "For Your Intoxicating Gaze" (Ghorboon-e Mast-e Negahat).

Mazyar then performed the album’s other songs in turn, and "Romantic" (Asheghooneh) nearly blew the roof off. Mazyar asked the people at the back of the hall to send him some extra energy. He also thanked his brother Khashayar, who works very hard on his projects.

Mazyar and Khashayar had long wanted their younger brother to attend one of their concerts in Iran, and on Sunday night it finally happened: the youngest Fallahi, on a visit to Iran, sat in the Milad Hall to watch the performance of the lovers’ favourite star.

Mazyar introduced him like this: «Give a hand to my brother Shahriar, whom we call Bardia! My brother is shy and sat down quickly, but you can tell from his hair colour that he’s my brother.»

Having a blind musician in Fallahi’s band was striking. Accordionist Davood Jafari played an Azeri piece, and the audience clapped enthusiastically and joined in.

* Mazyar gets his own joke

When Mazyar was about to perform "Damn Me", he amusingly mentioned that he had become the subject of a joke! The song has won a lot of fans.

He said: «Thanks to this song, a joke landed on me! The joke goes that you can’t listen to Mazyar Fallahi’s songs without getting your heart broken! So now I’ve got my own joke too. Apparently, after hearing this song, it makes you fall in love all over again!»

After this song, Mazyar asked Milad Nodast to play a piece on Spanish guitar, and he left everyone amazed: he produced the sound of a daf on the guitar, and Mazyar said: «Milad invented this himself!»

He also gave special thanks to pianist Hamid Eskandar and electric guitarist Hooman Khorasani. Milad Jowzi, the quiet one of the band, was hiding behind the pine trees until Fallahi asked the bassist to come out!

The fans were raising the roof, and Fallahi performed one nostalgic hit after another, including "Leyli’s Majnun, I Love You" and "Frozen Heart" (Ghalb-e Yakhi). He gave special thanks to the concert organizers and to his album producer Mohammad Hatampour, director of Avaye Forouhar, and asked the crowd for a big round of applause for percussionist Pejman Farahmand; violinist Babak Imani also lent the concert a special atmosphere.

* "Shrek" at the concert

Mohammadreza Alimardani, the country’s famous and golden-voiced dubbing artist who voiced "Shrek", performed Mazyar’s new song "Be My Guest" (Mehmoon-e Man Bash) with him; the song was Mazyar’s gift to his fans.

While performing the song "Baran" (Rain), Mazyar spoke of his 6-year-old daughter: «My daughter made me this bracelet and put 2 evil-eye charms on it so I don’t catch a cold!»

* Persepolis fans bring the house down

Surprisingly, Fallahi said nothing about Persepolis, but when the clip for "Leila" was screened, cries of "Ghermezeteh" shook the International Exhibition Center.

The clip tells the story of four Iranian soldiers who hold out in a trench to the very last bullet so that their comrades can get through, and who write their last wills on a scrap of paper before they are martyred.

One of these dear martyrs says: «Haji, they’re almost on us. Any minute now they’ll cut us off. How much ammo have we got?»

Haji replies: «Ammo? None.» Another soldier asks: «So what do we do now?» Haji answers: «We only have time to write. Give me a pen and paper, I’ll write for everyone.»

One of the soldiers, a lively one, said: «Write: it’s red everywhere (Ghermezeteh).» At that moment the hall erupted, Mazyar clapped along, and Persepolis chants shook the hall.

Another soldier said: «Stop going on about red, it’s only blue.» But not a sound came from the hall, and Persepolis was cheered once again.

At the end, the soldier in love wrote a letter to his wife Leila; Mazyar sang this song and finally broke into tears. The concert ended with cheers for Mazyar, his band and Persepolis, and Mazyar showed that he remembers his team wherever he goes.