Ciwan Haco
Ciwan Haco (born 1957) is a Kurdish singer. He was born near Qamishlo in Syria. His grandfather was originally from Mardin, Turkey. After finishing high school, he left for Germany in order to continue his studies. He studied music at the University of Bochum for three years. He is now residing in Sweden.
His Music
Ciwan Haco is one of the very first Kurdish singers to combine Kurdish folk music with western style pop music, rock, blues and jazz. To date he has released 14 albums and a live VCD and DVD of his famous Batman concert of 2003, which was attended by more than 200,000 people. Ciwan Haco is known for his lyrics that are often purposely simple and to which the main recurrent theme is love, with variations around this same theme. The main song from his last album Off (2006), Li hêviya te (Waiting for you) features vocals in both Kurmanci and French language (the latter being sung by a female vocalist).
Similar to other famous Kurdish musicians like Şivan Perwer, Haco sometimes uses poems by famous Kurdish poets such as Cegerxwîn or Qedrîcan in his songs ,. He has also recorded one of the novels of Mehmed Uzun named Destana Egîdekî.
Very popular in the Kurdish diaspora as with the Kurdish people in the Middle East, Ciwan Haco has given concerts in many parts of Europe.
Albums
- Emîna Emîna (1970)
- Pêşmerge (1979)
- Diyarbekîr (1981)
- Gûla Sor (1983)
- Leyla (1985)
- Girtîyên Azadîyê (1987)
- Çaw Bella (1989)
- Sî û Sê Gule (1991)
- Dûrî (1994)
- Bilûra Min (1997)
- Destana Egîdekî (1998)
- Derya (2003)
- Konsera Batmanê (2003) (VCD & DVD)
- Na Na (2004)
- Off (2006)
- Veger (2012)
Family
Ciwan's parents, Sihadet and Ibrahim had twelve children:
F=Female, M=Male
Ajamê (died at the age of six) F
Dillberê (has written a lot of Ciwan's famous songs) F
Ajamê (named after their first child. Lives in Sweden) F
Nayîf (Was a part of the Kurdish military organization PKK and lost his life for the cause of the Kurdish people and their rights) M
Nûredîn (Lives in Norway) M
Ismahan (Still lives in Syria) F
Ciwan (Lives in Sweden)
Xafshê (Lives in Sweden) F
Zînê (Lives in Sweden) F
Perwin (Currently in Norway) F
Ciwan's father, Ibrahim, had another wife before Sihadet, and together they had two children:
Bahîya (Lives in Sweden) F
Gulhat (Lives in Germany) F
Sihadet and Ibrahim moved to Sweden in 2004. In Syria, it is difficult for the elderly to get help daily, so they moved to Sweden because most of their children live there.
Ciwan lives in Gävle, Sweden. Together with his Icelandic wife, he has two children: Lorin, 7 and Rosa, 5, both girls. His wife has one boy named Árni, 14.