Chavoshi’s Eighth Album to Be Released After Year-Long Delay

Pop singer, songwriter and composer Mohsen Chavoshi will release his latest album “Abraham” after waiting a year for permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Chavoshi, one of the best selling pop musicians with seven official albums and over 50 singles, used to be an uncontroversial artist until May when he released the single song “Khuzestan” online.

He released the single to mark Khorramshahr Liberation Day, May 24, 1982, the fateful day in the bloody Iran-Iraq 1980-88 war in which Iranian troops recaptured the southwestern port city in oil-rich Khuzestan Province from the invading Iraqi forces while sustaining heavy casualties.

Written by poet and lyricist Hossein Safa, the song laments the oppression and isolation of Khuzestan from the onset of military hostilities up until the present day afflictions imposed by drought and dust storms.

But the song’s reference to concepts such as oppression, corruption and yearning for freedom made it an object of controversy in the days following the release.

Chavoshi released his seventh album “Harmless Ruler” in 2016 and in October 2017 announced the name of his new album would be “Abraham”.

However, there was no news of the release of the album up until August 8 when he wrote in his Instagram account that the Culture Ministry had not issued the publishing permit after a year.

He also announced that together with the producer of the album Seyyed Hadi Hosseini, they have made their decision to release the album online by the end of August if official permission is not granted.

Three days later, the music office of the ministry responded to the threat, saying that in the August of last year seven pieces from Abraham had been submitted to it for evaluation. It said two pieces were approved, but lyrics of five tracks needed correction or rewriting.  “As such, after a year there has been no revision yet.”

However, last week, “Abraham” got the permit, Chavoshi told his fans in an Instagram post. He did not say whether he had reedited the lyrics or the ministry officials had disregarded their earlier demand.  According to ILNA, Hosseini announced that the album will be available by August 28.