The One & Only Googoosh
Iran's Beloved Superstar
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A celebration of one of Iran’s most iconic musical artists.
The legendary Iranian singer and actress Googoosh (born Faegheh Atashin) made her stage debut at age two while performing alongside her acrobat father. By the time she reached adulthood, she was widely considered to be Iran's first superstar. Googoosh was in the prime of her career and on the brink of international stardom, but after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, she was silenced and disappeared from public life for over twenty years. However, her fans did not forget her. And as they sought refuge around the globe, they found ways to keep her music alive.
Azadeh Westergaard has crafted an unforgettable love letter to the home she once knew in Iran and to the woman who was and still is a cultural icon—a dazzling performer known as the one and only Googoosh.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While other Iranian children played and attended school, Faegheh Atashin (b. 1950) performed in her acrobat father's vaudeville acts, rising to fame with a singing voice that sounded "like the warbling bolbols that woke us at dawn." Under the stage name Googoosh, she became a cultural icon, even inspiring fashion trends, but the Iranian Revolution in 1979 abruptly stopped her career, banning solo musical performances by women. As many Iranians fled, "scattering across the world/ like wild, wind-blown poppies," Googoosh's music survived on recordings abroad until, in 2000, a political shift allowed her to again travel and perform. Second-person narration presents Googoosh's legacy through the lens of the Iranian diaspora. Westergaard's highly dimensional collage work, patterned and embellished with block prints, brush pens, and colored pencil, leans into portraiture and stage scenes in this ode to a beloved figure—"our one and only/ Googoosh." An author's note and biography conclude. Ages 4–8.
