Moluk Zarabi
Background information
Birth name	Moluk Farshforosh Kashani
Born	March 22, 1907  Kashan
Died	January 5, 2000 Tehran
Genres	Persian traditional music
Occupation(s)	singer and actress
Years active	1920–1978

Moluk Farshforosh Kashani (Persian: ملوک ضرابی, March 22, 1907 Kashan – January 5, 2000 Tehran), known as Moluk Zarabi, was a Persian traditional music singer and Actor from Iran.^[1]

Life

Moluk Farsh Kashani was born in a music-loving family. Her grandfather Haji Jafar was a singer in the court of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. Moluk inherited good voice from her father and grandfather and showed talent at the age of seven. Early interest in singing caused her family displeasure and social exclusion at school. But with all these problems, Moluk has been singing in various Kashan groups since he was 13 years old.^[1]

Hossein Taherzadeh discovered Moluk's singing talent at the age of 9 and taught her to sing for two years. Haji Khan Ain al-Dawlah (drums) also taught her to play percussion instruments for a year. Moluk's alto voice was very suitable for singing percussive ballads. Later, she became so famous by singing percussion ballads that they gave her the stage name "Zarrabi". Moluk learned singing from Abul Hasan Iqbal Azar and was one of his students.^[2]

Professional experience

Moluk Zarrabi's career as a singer began in 1924 with two public performances at Firooz Bahram High School in Tehran and another performance with Ahmad Ebadi at Tehran's Grand Hotel.^[1]

later she joined Ismail Mehrtash's theater group called Anjuman Barbad, which was founded in 1926, and performed with this leading orchestra in plays such as Adalat and musical plays and pieces such as Khosrow and Shirin and Layla and Majnun and established her position among the leading singers and actors of Iranian theater and cinema in the first half of the 20th century.^[3]

Shortly after the establishment of Radio Tehran in 1940, Moluk Zarrabi was invited along with several different groups. In these radio programs, he collaborated with musicians such as Abolhasan Saba, Hossein Yahaghi, Morteza Mahjubi, Habib Samaei and Hossein Tehrani. The first radio performance of Moluk Zarrabi was the ballad "Kisti", whose lyrics were written by Hassan Salek and whose music was composed by Hossein Yahaghi.

Around 1957, Moluk Zarrabi was chosen as an honorary member of Tehran Radio Orchestra No. 7 (special orchestra) which operated under the supervision of Abdullah Jahanpanah.^[4]

Moluk Zarrabi traveled to Syria and Lebanon in 1938 to record songs with Ismail Mehrtash, Abolhasan Saba, Hossein Qoli Tatai and singers Javad Badiazadeh, Taj Esfahani, Melke Broumand and Adib Khansari. The pieces recorded by Meluk Zarrabi were "Eshg Man" for Odeon and the operettas "Khosro and Shirin" and "Khodstaei Shirin" which were performed with the Barbad community orchestra.^[5]

Among the famous ballads of Meluk Zarrabi, we can mention "Sargasht Deladar and Gham Hejran", "Bride's Flower from the Wind of Saba", "Daughters of Cyrus", "You went and broke your promise", "O Shukh, O Negara". . And "flower season" is mentioned.^[6]

At the age of 25, Moluk Zarrabi sang the song "Flower Bride" in Tehran theater on the occasion of Kashf-e hijab, and because of this, she was beaten by religious fanatics, but he continued his work with a stronger will. She performed many times at Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's birthday party.^[1]

Death

Moluk Zarrabi died on January 5, 2000, in her private apartment in Tehran and was buried in Behesht-e Zahra, plot 48, row 67, number 34.

Albumology

• Rana's album on YouTube (Faramarz Asif later performed a song with the same name inspired by Rana's song)
• Sokhni ba del album
• Whose album?
• The best album 1
• The best album 2

References