Iraj chose to be singer of all people
By Alireza Sepahvand
Journalist
Famous Iranian singer Hossein Khajeh-Amiri, known as Iraj, passed away on Wednesday but when it comes to certain voices, one cannot speak of an “end.” Some voices become part of the memory of a nation, and as long as someone in this land listens to music, song, and their collective memories, they remain alive. Iraj was one of those voices, a voice that was present in the sphere of Iranian music for more than seven decades and finally joined eternity, entrusting his immortality to the very thing to which he devoted his life: singing.
Iraj was not just a renowned singer. He was a vocal phenomenon. Iranian master singer Mohammad-Reza Shajarian said about him at an honoring ceremony for Iraj in 2013: “Iraj’s voice is a yardstick and standard in the history of our singing,” and emphasized that whenever one wanted to give an example of the highest level of vocal ability, one would give a voice like Iraj’s as an example. This view, expressed by one of the greatest singers in the history of Iranian music, may perhaps be the most precise description of Iraj’s position; a singer who became known as the “Pahlavan (hero) of Singing,” and this title, more than being a promotional nickname, was a description of the dimensions of his ability and character.
In terms of the type, color, quality, texture, and power of his vocal ornamentation, Iraj was unparalleled. In Iranian singing, the voice is not simply “loudness” or “range.” Vocal color, the quality of resonance, the ability to control, clarity of expression, the power to maneuver through different vocal registers, and above all, the relationship between technique and music, together form what makes a singer a great singer. Iraj possessed qualities in all these components for which it is difficult to find an equal example.
With the emergence of Iraj in the realm of singing, a dimension of the power of Iranian vocal art was displayed that had never been seen on this scale and with this quality. The importance of this event becomes clearer when we know that he emerged at a time when Iranian singing itself was full of great peaks; Taj Esfahani was singing at the height of his authority, Banan was at the peak of delicacy, refinement, and musical understanding, and names such as Adib Khansari, Taherzadeh, and Zelli each represented a part of the glorious history of Iranian singing. In such a constellation, simply singing well was no longer enough. For a singer to be able to rise among these giants of singing, he had to possess something beyond ordinary talent.
That “something” in Iraj was an exceptional vocal instrument a voice that combined power with ease.
One of the wonders of Iraj’s singing was that his vocal ornamentations in the high registers sounded so smooth, effortless, and natural that the listener imagined performing them was easy. But it was enough for a professional singer to try to perform even a much weaker imitation of the same phrase to realize what kind of power Iraj possessed. This is precisely where the distance between a “good singer” and the possessor of a historic voice becomes apparent. What sounded natural and effortless for Iraj represented, for many other singers, the limits of their vocal abilities.
Akbar Golpayegani, too, had emphasized the clarity of Iraj’s voice and his unique vocal ornamentations, describing him as a singer with rare abilities. These testimonies from his contemporaries and the great figures of singing carry particular importance, because the true value of a singer is sometimes understood better by those who themselves have stood in the same field than by any critic.
But Iraj was not just the possessor of a powerful voice. An important part of his artistic personality must be sought in a choice that, at first glance, may have raised questions for many in the world of music: why a singer with such technical and vocal capacity devoted a significant part of his artistic life to singing in cinema, popular works, and songs that perhaps did not correspond to the image expected of a classical and sophisticated singer.