As we pray for Newroz Oremari listen to his beautiful voice

[Anthea]

Newroz Oremari

My dear friends I suffered a heart attack and almost died.

Thank God and thanks to our nurses, doctors, and the British government for saving my life.

Some of the dangerous blood clots that caused the heart attack have been opened and removed, and I will return after three weeks to open other, less dangerous arteries and blood clots.

I feel absolutely ok.

Try to be positive,

Many thanks.

[Anthea]

At 17 and faced execution over music

A man who fled Iraq due to living in fear over the music he made has now recorded a song at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. Newroz Oremari was born in a town called Zakho in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He took an interest in singing after copying the sounds of nature and trying to humanise those sounds into singing

One day at school in the 1980s, he sang alongside a famous singer who took him under his wing. He started recording songs but due to the Saddam Hussein regime at the time, he had to do it illegally. He was arrested as a teenager for going against the government.

Newroz, now 62, told MyLondon: "I had to sign a pledge saying that if I ever sang again, even among my friends, I'd be executed and I would have to accept the death penalty. As I was a teenager, they gave me a chance but said this would be the last time. It could be signing anything, a love song but because I was considered a 'dangerous' person - they thought I could provoke people with my music

"When I got to 17, I joined the Kurdish Revolution and became a freedom fighter against the Saddam Hussein regime. I started singing openly against the regime. From there on, I got arrested numerous times and had to move to Syria, then expelled to Lebanon and all of that, my only crime was to be born as a Kuridish singer."

In 1988, the Hussein regime began a campaign of extermination against the Kurdish people living in Northern Iraq. This led to the execution and the attacks on the Kurdish people were characterised as gross violations of human rights including the use of chemical weapons such as sarin, mustard gas and nerve agents. In 1991, millions of people fled to the border of Iran and Turkey while thousands died due to the regime.

Due to these attacks and fearing for his life, in 1989 he escaped and spent years in exile in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey before eventually settling in Hackney, East London. Over the past 30 years, Newroz has worked in many different fields from being an interpreter with Home Office while continuing to sing freely in his native language.

He said: "London has given me everything. I love it. It gave me a job, a passport - this Kurdish man who nobody cared about and all the issues in the Middle East but suddenly I'm in London and I'm free. I used to travel illegally and in fear of my life between Turkey and Iran but I haven't had to do that anymore. I used to live like a slave and it was horrible, I wasn't allowed to speak or express myself freely.

"London gave me love, gave me everything. I could have been extradited to Iraq and I would have been killed but instead, I was looked after and I was blessed."

Newroz then got the chance to record a song at Abbey Road Studios. The studio which is synonymous with The Beatles, has now been graced by the presence of Newroz. He got to record a song with the Woolwich songwriting duo Ooberfuse. Ooberfuse, made up of Cherrie and Hal St John, have toured all over the world and recently recorded their new single 'Show Me Love'. Show Me Love opens 'up on the reality faced by millions of people displaced because of surging hatred in their homelands."

Newroz continued: "When I got into the studio, I was thinking of the John Lennon song 'Imagine'. I started thinking of Abbey Road without Newroz. It was a dream come true. I loved working with Cherrie and Hal as they are both human rights activists. I am so grateful to say I've sung in the same studio as The Beatles. It's a beautiful imagination and feeling.

"Being a refugee isn't easy. Leaving the place you grew up in, you become very attached to it. You only leave if you're forced. I wouldn't have left Kurdistan if I had a choice but there was no way I could live under Saddam Hussein as my people were being killed. The only way I could get out was to escape and flee."

https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-lon ... g-27025901

Published 4 JUN 2023

This article gives a rough outline of a truly PROUD KURD who spends his entire life singing about Kurdistan, he like so many of us, strive to bring about a FREE KURDISTAN

Newroz Oremari has a wonderful operatic voice - the voice of an angel - and shares his songs everywhere he can

LOVE YOU NEWROZ

[Anthea]

Nawroz Oremari and Tom Donald

Nawroz is a celebrated Kurdish singer with powerful and evocative voice. As a teenager growing up in Iraqi Kurdistan, he was detained and held for singing songs critical of the government regine (then under Saddam Hussein) and was forced to flee

Nawroz spent the next nine years in exile in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, before settling in the UK. His extraordinary voice brings to life folk songs from his homeland and elsewhere from his journey. He sings in English, Farsi and Arabic and is a member of the Citizens of the World Choir. You can read more about Nawroz’ music and his extraordinary journey to the UK here: https://www.politicshome.com/members/...

Tom is a pioneering Australian-London-based pianist and composer whose improvisational skill has drawn comparisons to Keith Jarrett, especially noted after his London Jazz Festival appearance at Conway Hall. His groundbreaking performances, including a televised concert at the London Shard on Sky Arts and BBC Radio London, have cemented his place in the fusion of classical and jazz realms. Founder of the London Contemporary School of Piano, a world-class leader in music education innovation for pianists of all ages.

Tom nurtures a global community of students through the London Contemporary School of Piano. His compositions, notably “Symphony of Voices” for UN Refugee Week and “Written in the Scrolls” aired on BBC Radio 3, have been recognized for weaving musical styles and ancient cultures in a modern setting. His latest album “Pax Aeterna” promises another innovative chapter, blending Gregorian chants with jazz piano in collaboration with Pluscarden Abbey’s monks. This latest endeavor encapsulates Tom’s commitment to merging historical depth with contemporary expression, further enriching the tapestry of modern music.

Nawroz and Tom have been performing together for a number of years and the warmth of this collaboration is present in their performance.

About Listen to the World

‘Listen to the World’ is a place of live music where the traditions and talents of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers find a home among local artists. Come and join us, as either a listener or performer, everyone is welcome.

Link to wonderful video:

https://www.youtube.com/live/eXNXcD5muS ... BCj-tA_AoP

[Anthea]

Secular friends, atheists, Yazidi brothers, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews. Whoever of you worships the enlightened singer and thinker, Newroz, then has died, and whoever worships secularism, it is still alive.

In the past few days, some Islamic parties published a video clip of me that was cut up and the video was manipulated and told people that Nawroz the greatest thinker and head of atheists in all of Kurdistan, now he has returned to Islam, and this is a victory for Islam that is why some atheists and secularists felt angry, frustrated, and abandoned secularism because the head of the secularists Nawroz has abandoned secularism.

My dear friends, as you say that I was the reason for influencing millions of Kurds by publishing logical, dialectical videos, and I also used art and singing to educate people, this is true, but why do you become my slaves?

I opened your minds and hearts so that you can become free, not so that you can worship me, I am neither Hitler nor Stalin or Saddam, I am one like you.

O atheist, why do you become frustrated? I am not an atheist and have never denied God once in my life.

I am against the cult of personalities, I am a person who believes in democracy and Western liberalism. So why do you say that I will leave atheism because Nawroz returned to Islam?

Why do you relate to me? You don't understand atheism yet.

I am a free person living in a free country, today I am a Christian, tomorrow I will become a Muslim.

Newroz Oremari