This is an interesting article:
story.news.yahoo.com
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi pop stars, tainted by association with Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s rule, are slowly making a comeback, but, as in politics, it's the exiles who are hogging the limelight.
Iraq (news - web sites) once had dozens of young pop singers, but during the 1990s they had to sing the praises of the dictator, forcing many to flee abroad and others to give up altogether.
Prominent singer Dawood Qaissi was so close to the ruling elite that he was gunned down in May, prompting many crooners to go into hiding while Washington set up a civilian administration and a governing council dominated by dissidents from abroad.
"They are frightened since most of them were forced to sing for the previous government," said a video production chief who asked not to be identified.
"Ordinary people had been repressed so they didn't want any reminder (of the past). But they were naive since we were all in one way or another part of the system," he said.
As he sits talking in his bare Baghdad office, which lacks even a telephone line, Nizar al-Khaled, one of the young stars of the previous era, walks in.
Singing under Saddam caused nothing but problems, Khaled said, usually because of his vindictive son Uday who ran the al-Shebab youth and entertainment television channel.
"Another singer, Haitham Yousef, and I were really popular with the girls, so Uday stopped us appearing on television. Then last year they produced a list of singers who had not sung for Saddam yet (on television), so I had to do it -- twice," he said.
Yousef fled the country after Uday had a group of girls beat him up at a concert, Khaled said. Former workers at Shebab recall other incidents, one involving Uday urinating on a singer.
The article has more.... |
