‘Forbidden Party’: Deutsche Welle launches music project for young Iranians
July 18, 2008
Western music and underground parties and bands – the government in Tehran bans many things that the younger generation in Iran finds interesting. Therefore, the pulsating music scene in Iran meets privately – at forbidden concerts and parties. Deutsche Welle is now addressing this young target group directly.
With “Forbidden Party”, Germany’s international broadcaster is inviting young Iranian music enthusiasts to design a virtual party platform on the Internet. DW-WORLD.DE and DW-RADIO are asking users and listeners to send their favorite songs, bands, lyrics and images to forbiddenparty@dw-world.de. Starting Monday, July 21, a selection of the entries will be presented daily at www.dw-world.de/persian/forbiddenparty.
“The average age in Iran is 25. Young Iranians are more open to the world than we suspected. They are shaping the society and the future of the country,” says Sybille Golte-Schröder, Head of the Asia Program at Deutsche Welle.
“This Iranian-German project is something completely new and Deutsche Welle is able to use its competence as a mediator between cultures,” says project initiator Gero Schliess. Project partners include musicians from the popular Iranian underground band “Kiosk”, who enjoy cult status in their homeland.
DW-RADIO/Farsi interviews musicians in Iran and uses features to really get into the topic of underground music in Iran – while also corresponding to the motto of this year’s Beethovenfest “Macht. Musik. Exploitation and Marginalization”.
As part of the supporting program from the Beethovnfest in Bonn, the music from the virtual web party will be featured at the “Forbidden Party” on September 12 in the Deutsche Welle Broadcasting Center. Starting at 9:00 pm, DJ HUMAN will present a selection of requests.
Deutsche Welle has been broadcasting radio programming in Persian for more than four decades. Farsi has been an area of focus for DW-WORLD.DE since March 2007.
July 18, 2008