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Iran: 1970s Pop Musician Toofan Ataee Dies in Los Angeles

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Iran, Arts & Culture, Citizen Media, Music

Toofan Ataee, an Iranian pop musician of the 1970s, known as Toofan or 2Fun, died of lung cancer on Tuesday 5 June, 2012, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His music was extensively popular before the Islamic revolution in Iran, but was banned after Islamic Revolution in 1979.

On the event of his death, social networks were trending in a nostalgic re-sharing of his hit love song [1] from 1978, titled ‘khoda-ye Asemoon-ha’ (God of heavens) and tribute messages such as “God of the Heavens is gone” or “He has gone to God of heavens”.

Afarideh, in his Facebook status [2] [fa], recounts his affection for the song as a child:

الان با خبر شدم از تو سایت ها که ( طوفان ) به علت بیماری سرطان در گذشت خیلی دلم گرفت یاد آهنگ ( خدای آسمون ها ) افتادم یادمه که بچه گیم ها خیلی این آهنگ رو دوست داشتم اون موقع واقعا نمیدونستم عشق چیه اما یادمه که اینقدر این آهنگ برام جذاب بود و من رو تحریک کرد که برم و درباره عشق اطلاعات جمع کنم این رو جدی میگم با این که نوع موسیقی که کار میکنم هیچ ربطی به هم نداره اما دوست داشتم واقعا به نظرم حیف شد مرد همه ازش خاطره خوب داشتن

I was just informed of Toofan's death of cancer through websites; I felt so blue. I remembered how much I loved ‘Khoda-ye Asemoon-ha’ when I was a kid. I was so young and I didn't know what ‘love’ was, but I went to learn about it because of this song. Seriously, although the genre of music that I like and work in now is completely different from Toofan's type of work, I really loved him. I really regret his death. I think everyone had good memories of him.

The author of ‘Words from the bottom of the heart’, Dara Irani, draws on the image of the artist from the years most of us have not been around to remember, in a blog post [3] [fa]:

تقدیر بر این است که از هنرمندان فقط وقتی یاد کنیم که از دنیا رفته اند.دردوران کودکی درآن سالهای فراموش نشدنی ۱۳۵۰ ترانه «خدای آسمونها خدای کهکشونها »ورد زبان کوچک و بزرگ بود. طوفان با آن موهای فرفری و گروه موزیک که داشت ترانه های قشنگی می خواند که البته معروفترینش هم همین بود […] حالا دیگر بین مانیست چون رفته است پیش خدای آسمونها !همان خدایی که می خواست به دادش برسد و آخرش هم به دادش رسید و او را با خودش برد تا ما به یکباره به یادمان بیفتد..

It's always so that we only start to appreciate artists once they're gone. When I was a child, in those unforgettable days of the 1970s, the song ‘Khoda-ye Asemoon-ha’ was on every old and young person's lips. Toofan with his Afro curls, his little music band and their pretty love songs, from which this one was the most popular… He asked his God of heavens to have mercy on his loving heart, and he did. Now he's left us..

Because of the severity of his condition, a ceremony [4] was held in his honour a week ago in Los Angeles, with a lot of United States-based Iranian celebrities attending to pay homage to this icon.

Here [5] [fa] is Shabahang TV's five minute coverage of his death and the tribute ceremony, including an interview with Toofan.