Fajr festival brings AI to the fore as judges fault pop music standards
The secretary of the 41st Fajr International Music Festival said at the closing ceremony in Tehran on Friday that the event had prioritized Iranian classical and regional traditions, children’s music and the responsible use of artificial intelligence, while judges warned of deep structural weaknesses in the country’s pop sector.
Arash Amini told the audience at Vahdat Hall that this year’s edition, held from February 9 to 15, was conceived as a barometer of Iran’s music scene rather than a mere run of concerts, ISNA reported.
He said organizers placed Iranian dastgahi music, the country’s classical modal system built around canonical melodic frameworks known as dastgahs, and regional genres at the core of the program, expanding the presence of folk ensembles to offset the incomplete staging of the 17th Regional Music Festival.
Amini said a dedicated children and youth strand was mounted in collaboration with the Art Bureau, drawing strong attendance from school pupils. Performances foregrounded traditional instruments such as the Setar, Santur (hammered dulcimer) and Kamancheh (an Iranian spiked fiddle), with repertoire aligned to Iranian modal systems, in a bid to anchor younger audiences in national musical heritage.
He added that works were assessed across 12 competitive categories, with the Barbad Award presented in fields including Iranian classical, pop and children’s music to bolster professional standards.
In a notable departure, the closing ceremony featured a segment on artificial intelligence, reflecting its growing use in arrangement, composition and lyric writing.
Amini said the aim was to alert musicians to the technology’s rapid advance and promote informed, ethical deployment in creative practice.
A pop compilation album titled ‘41 Works’, featuring 41 singers performing songs themed on Iran, was unveiled during the ceremony. Four veteran regional musicians from Chabahar, Golestan, Kermanshah and Lorestan were also honored for lifetime achievement.
In a statement read out at the event, the Barbad Award jury said the breadth of genres offered a realistic snapshot of Iranian music, combining artistic promise with serious structural challenges.
While praising the resilience of dastgahi and fusion forms, the panel criticized much of the pop output for weak composition, poor vocal training and the absence of coherent educational and regulatory frameworks.
The jury expressed particular concern over children’s productions, citing a lack of policy, planning and targeted support, and declined to grant any award in the lyrics category, saying none of the submissions met acceptable literary standards.