Elaha Soroor

Elaha Soroor (also spelled as Elaha Sorur) (Persian: الهه سرور‎‎) (born in 1988) is an Afghan pop singer. She was in musical reality show Afghan Star, a television program similar to the Idol franchise. She is a member of Hazara ethnic group of Afghanistan.

Personal life

Soroor was born in Iran into a religious family of refugees who left Afghanistan during the civil war, and lived there for 14 years. Soroor and her family moved back to Afghanistan in 2005. During her high school years, Elaha worked as a news reporter for a local radio station in Kondoz, a city in the north of Afghanistan, and also for the Bakhtar news agency. At the same time, she taught literacy and maths to young girls and women from her neighborhood who were not allowed to attend school under Taliban law. As a young woman in Kondoz (which at the time Taliban still had influence on people of the area), Soroor was not afraid to openly challenge conservative views and fight for a more equal society. She was labeled by locals as a political activist, meaning she and her family were forced to leave Kondoz after receiving death threats from fundamentalist groups.

Music Career

After moving to Kabul with her family in 2007 Soroor began to develop her passion for music. She studied at music school where she specialized in traditional Afghan folk music whilst also studying western harmony, and started performing with Afghani group, 'Aryan'. All this was done in secret without the consent or support of her family, who were against her performing as a professional musician. Upon finding out, they prevented her from singing for a year.

Soroor's voice was discovered by the judges of TV talent show "Afghan Star" in 2009, where she gained popularity nationally among Afghan communities around the world, being the first female Hazara singer to perform on national TV.

Her first two original songs “Abi Jan” and “Be Bahana” were released in 2009. In 2010 she recorded "Sangsar", a song which openly criticises the “Stoning Law " practiced by some Muslim communities. This lead to fundamentalist groups attempting to assassinate her and members of her family on several occasions.

Discography

Live performances and concerts

• Concert in Copenhagen, Denmark (June 7 2011)
• Concert in Nederland, Holland (June 2011)
• Special appearance on BBC New year show of BBC Persian TV in 1391

Music videos

• "Bay Bahaana"
• "Abi Jan"
• "Devanegi"
• "Meyane Tariki"

• "Biography – Welcome To West Kabul". Kabulboy.webs.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-31. Retrieved 2012-05-05.