Chopy Fatah

About Chopy Fatah

Chopy Fatah is a Kurdish pop singer born in Kirkuk on 10 June 1983 and raised in the Netherlands, and one of the best-known women in Kurdish pop. Her family left Iraq when she was a small child, in the late 1980s. She joined a children's choir at about seven, began studying at a Dutch music school at thirteen, and in 1999 trained at a Kurdish music academy in Germany.

She began performing in 2000, and her debut album, Çît Naw Binêm, followed in the early 2000s. Her breakthrough came with Nawit Denêm Jino (2007), home of Da Bro and Hêdî Hêdî. Crystal (2010), Şara (2011), a turn towards the Kurdish maqam, and the pop-rock Baran (2012) followed in quick succession, and her sixth album, Bnar, came out in 2017. She has also recorded three songs in English and toured widely in Europe, North America and beyond.

What sets her apart is language: she sings mainly in Sorani but also in Kurmanji, which has made her known across different parts of Kurdistan. Her sound pairs European pop production with the ornaments of Kurdish singing. Songs such as Kerkuk, Legel Xem, Pêşmerge and the Kurmanji Sultan are among her most searched. She has also presented television on Rudaw and in 2018 opened a fashion label, Chopy Designs, in Erbil, while continuing to release new songs.

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