Kurdish Music Artists
The defining voices of Kurdish folk music — from Hassan Zirek and Mihemed Şêxo to Şivan Perwer. Biographies, sheet music for their songs, and related articles.
Hassan Zirek
Hassan Zirek is the most-recorded Sorani Kurdish folk singer of the 20th century…
Mihemed Şêxo
Mihemed Şêxo is one of the foundational voices of modern Kurmanji music…
Şivan Perwer
Şivan Perwer is the most internationally recognized Kurmanji singer of the late 20th and 21st centuries…
Ayşe Şan
Ayşe Şan was one of the great female voices of Kurmanji folk music…
Mazhar Khaleqi
Mazhar Khaleqi was a pillar of Sorani classical-folk fusion…
Mihemed Mamle
Mihemed Mamle was a defining figure of politically engaged Sorani folk music…
Naser Razazi
Naser Razazi is one of the most powerful living voices of Sorani Kurdish music…
Ali Mardan
Ali Mardan was a pioneering Sorani folk vocalist active from the 1930s through the 1970s…
Tahir Tofiq
Tahir Tofiq was a master of the Sulaymaniyah school of Sorani song…
Tara Jaff
Tara Jaff is a contemporary Kurdish musician known internationally for blending Kurdish folk with jazz, classical harp, and world music…
Aynur Doğan
Aynur Doğan is a leading contemporary Kurmanji vocalist who brought Kurdish music to international attention…
Şakiro
Şakiro is widely regarded as the most important post-war Kurmanji dengbêj…
Mihemed Arif Cizrawî
Mihemed Arif Cizrawî was a foundational Kurmanji singer from the Cizre region…
Hozan Dilgeş
Hozan Dilgeş is a Kurmanji political-folk singer who emerged in the 1980s and became one of the major voices of Kurdish protest music in exi…
Nizamettin Ariç
Nizamettin Ariç is a Kurmanji singer, composer, and filmmaker born in Ağrı in 1956…
Diyar Dersim
Diyar Dersim is a contemporary Kurmanji and Zazaki singer from the Tunceli (Dersim) region…
Mikail Aslan
Mikail Aslan is one of the most internationally recognized Zazaki Kurdish musicians…
Sayyid Khalil Alinejad
Sayyid Khalil Alinejad was a master of the Yarsan tanbur tradition…
Reso (Mehmet Sait)
Reso (Mehmet Sait) was a major Diyarbakır-region dengbêj active from the 1960s through the 2010s…
Karapetê Xaço
Karapetê Xaço was an Armenian-Kurdish singer who became one of the most important preservers of Kurmanji oral tradition…