Andy Madadian, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora Stand By Iran
Farsi sign translates to "We are one." / ©AndyMusic.com
Popular Iranian-Armenian singer Andy Madadian joined the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and record producers Don Was and John Shanks on June 24 to record a special version of the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me” with lyrics in English and Farsi as a a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran.
The sole intent of the song is to be downloaded and shared with the Iranian people, “To give voice to the sentiment that all people of the world stand together,” says the message on MyDamnChannel, the website created to empower comedians, musicians and filmmakers to produce and distribute original videos that is hosting the collaboration between Andy, Bon Jovi and Sambora.
The song is in response to the now 2 week-old protests taking place in the capital of Tehran and various other Iranian cities that initially started out as a protest against a rigged election where current president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner but soon became a call for a change after a 30-year fundamentalist Islamic regime where human and women’s rights were abused.
Although Armenian, Andy has been a fixture on the Iranian music scene since the 80s. Andy joined Kouros in the late 80s and the two went on to release four successful albums until the duo split in 1992. Andy has been awarded the “Best Armenian International Singer” four times and is known as the “King of Pop” in Iran. His 2006 album, “City of Angels” won Best International Armenian Album at the Armenian Music Awards.
On July 21st, 2009, he will be performing at the half-time show during the Chelsea FC vs Inter Milan game at the Rose Bowl, a performance in which he canceled his tour for. Andy released his first Armenian language album, “Orere Seero” in 2003.
Singer Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora form half of American rock band “Bon Jovi,” which has sold over 120 million albums worldwide and inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Their 2008 “Lost Highway” tour generated $252 million in ticket sales and the band was the topic of the documentary, “When We Were Beautiful.” Current members also include David Bryan on keyboards and Tico Torres on drums and percussion.
A free download of the song is available here.
Jul 5th, 2009 at 4:22 am
[...] recording of a song sung in English and Farsi to show solidarity with the Iranian people. The blog notes that joining Jon Bon Jovi for the song is Iranian-Armenian pop star Andy Madadian. Unzipped also covers the release of the song. Cancel this [...]
Jul 7th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Beautiful song, beautifully sung, by two beautiful artists from my two favorite countries! Thank you, thank you, thank you to both Jon and Andy for this much needed effort! I hope there will be many more Iranian-American collaborations in the future!!
PEACE & LOVE ALWAYS
Jul 9th, 2009 at 11:13 am
What a heartfelt and glorious song. It touched my heart and I felt the vibrant and the power of the unity into my bones. The world is beautiful and people are part of the same body. We all need to be united and come together against war, unjustness, dictators and battle of powers.
Andy and Bon Jovi did a magnificent job with this beautiful song. It performed by just the right people at the right time. We all support Iranian people as well as all the people around the world who live under the dictatorial regimes.
Jul 15th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
yes a beautiful song, but it is known as black love song for people my generation. nice music and graetlistening, not a protest song or a support song, there would have been more farsi and moreover appropriate impact words. a bit easy and commercial to take one of the King’s classics. Sorry…
Aug 5th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Nice post — this really hits home for me.
Aug 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 am
love U andy
Sep 7th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Jazz
Dec 9th, 2009 at 8:32 am
im iranian,i can feel the pressure on my people these days!its really painfull.i thank both singers,and im really proud of ANDY,our favorite singer..
as SOUZAAN said,
WISH PEACE & LOVE FOR EVERY ONE IN ALL OVER THE WORLD:)