On Friday, January 9, Spin the Song magazine named Toomaj Salehi, an Iranian rapper at the top of the 25 most influential musicians list.
https://www.spin.com/2025/01/the-25-most-influential-people-in-music-in-2025/
Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian rapper mainly known for his protest songs concerning Iran's societal issues and the policies of the Islamic Republic. In July 2023, the Iranian Government sentenced Salehi to six years in prison for participating in the 2022 Iran protests.
In 2023, while in prison, Salehi was awarded the “Freedom of Expression Art Award” by the Index on Censorship for his "unwavering commitment to using his craft as a weapon against injustice". This imprisoned singer donated his cash prize to victims of recent floods in Iran.
In 2024, while in prison, he received the 2024 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
The government’s efforts to falsify a confession from Tomaj on a state-run TV channel, pretending he regretted his actions showing some photages of him talking to the interrogator with remorse. As they were desperately trying to control the narrative, no one ever believed the sherad.
After him not bow to the regime, on January 6, 2022, the administrator of Tomaj’s Twitter page announced that Tomaj may have lost his sight as a result of the beatings inflicted by the Islamic Republic’s forces in prison. He stated that about 70 days had passed since Toomaj had been imprisoned in solitary confinement, and added: “If he loses his sight, this negligence will be attributed to the authorities.”
In April 2023, Salehi’s family announced that the severity of Tomaj’s physical torture was so severe that he was unconscious and in a physically dangerous state for several days. The Human Rights Campaign in Iran called on the international community, international music and art institutions, as well as organizations defending freedom of expression, to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Tomaj Salehi in one voice and with determination.
On 24 April 2024, Salehi was sentenced to death for charges linked to Iran's 2022–23 Woman, Life, Freedom movement, before it was overturned in June 2024.
Toomaj was released from prison on December 11, 1403, after two years, in front of the people’s disbelieving eyes. Though, during his imprisonment, this man became one of the most popular revolutionary figures in Iran.
To produce his music, Toomaj had to sell his motorcycle and household items because his hometown studios were not willing to record his songs due to their political content, and he had to go to more distant places, such as northern Iran, which cost him more.
His famous saying: “What am I afraid of? I am afraid of being a coward, of being afraid itself. Until now, I have always been afraid.” He also said that if I ever give a concert, the first row will be child laborers and the second row will be cardboard sleepers.
Faal (fortune telling)
Part of the lyrics:
We go from the bottom and rise the pyramid, knocking the top down
We perform the show, look how spectacular we are
44 years of your regime, now such a horrid failure
On that day you will attack each other
I'm the psychic
I'm the fortune teller
I saw a cage in the coffee cup of the regime
And a lion was hunting a jackal
It was noon, it is not an interpretation of sleep
I made a professional coffee for you
And you should tolerate its bitterness
From the start, you were done!
