Amir Tataloo, the sulphurous tattooed Iranian singer

The famous Amirhossein Maghsoodloo, alias Amir Tataloo, stands out from the other stars of his country by a controversial career, strewn with ideological and political twists. With more than twenty years under his belt in pop, rap and R&B in Persian, he enjoys a popular support that has millions of admirers, from the generation of 2000. Banned from performing in Iran, he has resided for years in Turkey, where he continues to exercise his artistic activity.

His career began in the early 2000s on the underground scene, where he immediately gained considerable momentum, charming a young and adolescent audience who found in him a unique voice. A voice that reflects their ideas and their vision of the world, politics, society, culture and the arts, within a conservative Islamic republic that wants to control society.

“Tataliti ha” (“Tataloo fans”, in Persian), is the name that the singer has chosen to give to his fans, millions of young people with an average age of 20 years.

After practicing his profession without authorization in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Tataloo found refuge for his artistic creation in Dubai, where he chose to reside in the mid-2000s. Dissatisfied, he quickly returned to his native country to release his first album, without the permission of the authorities, whom he defies.

He was arrested twice by the Iranian police, in 2013 then in 2015, for incitement to corruption [de la société] in the country. But the star’s popularity, the mobilization of his fans in court and the hashtags calling for his release on social networks finally forced the authorities to release him.

A conservative parenthesis

In the midst of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear dossier, under the mandate of [l’ex-président iranien réformateur] Hassan Rohani, T