(b Sori, Urfa province, Turkey, 23 Dec 1955). Kurdish singer and composer. He was born into a poor peasant family and struggled to attend school in a nearby village; he began singing while in primary school. While Kurdish music was banned in Turkey, he learnt many songs by listening to Kurdish radio broadcasts from Armenia, Iraq and Iran, and his music contributed to the upsurge of nationalist and leftist cultural and political movements in the 1970s. Facing persecution for his singing, he took refuge in Germany in 1976 and resettled in Sweden, continuing to perform and compose songs in the steadily growing Kurdish diaspora. He is well known for his political songs, which emphasize the struggle of workers and peasants and the national liberation movements of the Kurds. His recordings included four tapes and two records before his exile and 25 cassettes by 1991, totalling about 500 pieces by the late 1990s. He usually accompanies his songs on the tanbūr and often sings duets with his wife Gulistan. Since 1995 his performances have been broadcast by the Kurdish satellite channel Med-TV, based in Europe.
M. Baksi: The Kurdish Voice: Shivan Perwer (1986)
Siwan Perwer: chants du Kurdistan, Auvidis A 5145 (1989)
S. Blum and A. Hassanpour: ‘“The Morning of Freedom Rose Up”: Kurdish Popular Song and the Exigencies of Cultural Survival’, Popular Music, xv (1996), 325–43
AMIR HASSANPOUR, STEPHEN BLUM