Culture Minister Seyyed Abbas Salehi and Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Seyyed Mohammad Mojtaba Hosseini attended the awarding ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of musicians and cultural figures at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.
While music bands from the Middle East, Europe and Asia performed during the 10-day festival, the competition section was only for local musicians in separate fields.
Addressing the ceremony, Culture Minister said: Iranian music is tuned with its people’s hearts. It plays sad songs when they feel down, being with them through the thick and thin. During the revolution of 1979 it was the popular revolutionary ballads that we could all hear and love in the streets. They became part and parcel of the popular culture of songs, poems and melodies. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, it was the Iranian music ballads that narrated the sacrifices made for the Sacred Defence. We still remember vividly the popular songs that were made and sung immediately after the historic liberation of Khorramshahr city, such as Khojasteh Baad In Pirouzi (Congratulations on This Victory).
He added: FIMF is a great opportunity for the old-generation masters and the new talents to convene and learn from each other; to share experiences. It’s also a great opportunity to hear local and folklore music from across the country. It’s indeed a great venue for national and international performances as well as global dialogue among civilization through the universal language of music.
Addressing the ceremony, Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh, who presided over this year’s festival, said: After three decades, the music community in Iran finally has something to offer. The success has been witnessed in recent decade at sold-out concerts and events. Half of the proceeds from ticket sales are used to fund the annual festival.”
He added: The festival is a resume for our musicians and artists in the field. They should be part of this annual event. This way they can help us improve ourselves and the quality of the event for the coming years. Our music community needs all the help it can get from the authorities, including support for the copyright law, issuing permission for concerts, and greater freedom and support for the presence and participation of women in such activities.
At the end of the ceremony, the winners were selected by a jury comprising a large number of music specialists from across the country.
Parisa Pirzadeh won the Plaque of Honour for her album Vocalize, while the Barbod Award went jointly to Alireza Mashayekhi’s album Spectrum and Karen Keyhani’s album Garden of Leaflessness.
In the instrumental category, the Plaque of Honour went to the album Chahargan by Ehsan Zabihifar while Milad Derakhshani won the Barbod Award for his album Say Something.
Kaveh Salehi grabbed the award for his music album This Is Also a Story, while the award for best singer went to Alireza Ghorbani and his album Forough.
In the song and album category no album won the award but the jury gave the Plaque of Honour to Salar Aghili (My Country) and Vahid Taj (Be Alive in Love).
In the rock music category Kaveh Yaghmaei’s album Abruptly Gone grabbed the Barbod Award, while the award for top pop singer went to Mehdi Yarrahi (Full Length Mirror).
Other winners were as follows:
Golnoosh Salehi – 10 Tir (Barbod Award) - mixed-instrumental music category
Farzad Milani – Nostalgia (Plaque of Honour) - mixed music with song category
Milad Derakhshani – Say Something (Barbod Award) - mixed music with song category
Ghasem Rahimzadeh – River Song (Barbod Award) - instrumental category
Majid Molania – Be Alive in Love (Plaque of Honour) - instrumental with voice
Mohammad Eshghi – Sarv-e-Baala (Tall Cedar) (Plaque of Honor) - instrumental with voice
Fajr International Music Festival is Iran’s most prestigious music festival founded in 1986, several years after the formation of the film and theatre festivals in the artistic sphere of Iran. Since its formation, the festival has enjoyed the strong presence of many well-known artists from different Asian and European countries.
This year’s event has been held in the company of great Iranian musicians and ensembles as well as many celebrated artists from all around the world, all gathered in a vivid atmosphere of melodies and songs to astound the music-lovers and to spread the aroma and sound of music in Tehran.
In addition to various Iranian ensembles, as well as Tehran Symphony Orchestra, a number of top musicians, composers, and singers from Europe, Middle East and Asia also took part and performed at the FIMF 2018.