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TORONTO
(AP) -- She last sang publicly more than 20 years ago, so
Googoosh admits to being "a little bit nervous" about
returning to the stage Saturday for the first time since Iran's
Islamic revolution in 1979. The concert at the Air Canada
Center, the first of a dozen planned in Canada and the United
States, is considered a significant Iranian culture event
because of Googoosh's overwhelming popularity back home. She was
the Iran's most popular performer from the 1960s and 70s, and
the resumption of her career fulfills a cherished wish of the
generation of Iranians that grew up with her. It also
illustrates the moderate turn taken by the Iranian leadership
since the 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami.
Googoosh
had been shut away with everything else deemed decadent and
subversive when Iran's Islamic revolution took hold more than
two decades ago. While other entertainers left their homeland to
continue performing, Googoosh chose to stay behind in silence
and isolation. By granting her a passport, she said, the Khatami
government signaled its support for her to resume her singing
and acting career, at least overseas. "It's fact that they
know I'm a singer to all kinds of people," she told The
Associated Press in an interview this week.
She said she had five new songs to perform along with the dozens
of old favorites mentioned by fans in the Iranian expatriate
community in the United States and elsewhere who send e-mails to
a U.S.-based Web site, www.googoosh.com.
In
addition to the concerts, Googoosh, 50, will be shooting a movie
in Canada, Cuba and Mexico directed by her husband, Massoud
Kimiai.
Her
return to her career as a singer-actress allows Iranians over
age 40 to renew their adoration for an entertainer they've known
since she began singing as a child. Googoosh appeared in her
first film in 1958 at age 8.
Despite
her silence of more than 20 years, she remains the top-selling
Iranian entertainer and has fans too young to have ever seen her
perform, except for on videotapes of her old films.
Admitting
she was "a little bit nervous," she said she wanted to
give back some of the "beautiful waves of love"
expressed by fans across the planet.
The
strictures of the Islamic republic forbade her from performing
or even dressing in her usual manner.
"I
never thought I'd be singing in concerts again," she said.
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