Homer Dizayee

About Homer Dizayee

Homer Dizayee is a Kurdish singer and songwriter from the Erbil plain whose frank lyrics and Western-influenced melodies brought a new voice to Sorani song. Born Omar Osman Dizayee, he spent his childhood in the village of Dugirdakan and went to school in Erbil before continuing his studies in Kirkuk and Baghdad. His exact birth year is not reliably documented, but he was already recording by the mid-1950s: his first song was made in Baghdad in 1955.

He soon left for Ankara and then Vienna, where he heard European music up close and earned a degree in political science. In 1966 he released two of his best-known songs, Baxçey Paşa and Qijkalî Lêw Alî, which still sound contemporary. In 1988 he moved to the United States to work for the Kurdish service of Voice of America, and in 2006 he became an adviser to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. In 2015 he published Çîrokî Muzîkî Klasîk, a Kurdish introduction to Western classical music.

Two things set him apart. His lyrics speak about love and desire far more openly than traditional Kurdish song, and he has been candid that many of his tunes are adapted from foreign melodies. His voice is warm and conversational rather than ornamental. Xwaye Ebê Êsta, Dwênê Şew and Çendî Gerram le Şaran remain his most searched songs. As far as is known he is living; he was still writing for Rudaw in 2023.

→ Browse all Sorani Kurdish notation