Tahsin Taha

Tahsin Taha was an Iraqi musician of Kurdish descent who was born in Amadiya. He belonged to a branch of the Kurdish princely family of Badinan. He was influenced by his father Taha Mohammed, who was a teacher, and by the folk singer Mohammed Arif Ceziri. He moved to different places due to his father's profession. He finished high school in Mosul. His songs were first broadcast on Baghdad's official radio station in 1958. He worked as a singing teacher at the theater in 1960. He left Baghdad on September 11, 1961 to join Mustafa Barzani's uprising. He was arrested in 1963 for participating in a Kurdish student demonstration. He was released from prison in 1964. He lived in his hometown Amadiya for several years. He returned to Baghdad in 1970 after a peace agreement between the government and the Kurds. He married in 1974 and had four sons. He traveled to the Netherlands on March 13, 1994 to attend the Newroz celebrations. He died of a heart attack on May 28, 1995, shortly before a planned heart surgery. He is buried in his hometown Amadiya in the Kurdish part of Iraq. His songs are still highly appreciated; some of them are among the most important of the Kurdish folk music.