TEHRAN – Songwriter Mohammad-Mehdi Sayyar, whose works have also been used by eulogists in Islamic rituals, has been named the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year.

He received the title and his special award on Sunday evening during a ceremony held as part of the Islamic Revolution Art Week, a festival which is organized every year by the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization (IIDO).

“I see myself at the beginning of the way,” Sayyar said after accepting his award from IIDO director Hojjatoleslam Qomi and Art Bureau director Mohammad-Mehdi Dadman.

“Although this title is a great honor, it adds the burden on my shoulders… Today, Iran needs a beauty movement in narrative and to produce beauty; art has always been a source of self-confidence for us and we need it more than ever,” he added.  

Sayyar songs have been sung by numerous singers, including Nima Masiha, Salar Aqili and Mohammad Motamedi.

For the first time, the organizers of the Islamic Revolution Art Week decided to select a person for his/her lifetime achievements as the Eternal Figure of Revolutionary Art, and an event as the Top Revolutionary Event of the Year.

Writer Hedayatollah Behbudi, best known for his works on Islamic Revolution history, won the Eternal Figure of Revolutionary Art.

“I hope your choice would be in harmony with history’s confirmation,” Behbudi said after receiving his award from Qomi.

“The Resistance Literature Office [of the Art Bureau] has now been active for three decades and I hope society has gained sufficient insight to recognize the three-decade effort,” he added.

His latest book, “A Man Named Reza Who Was Then Called Reza Khan”, which is a biography of Reza Shah, won the 2022 Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Award in the documentation category.

The performance of “Salam Commander”, a chorale recorded by eulogist Abuzar Ruhi and a choir of 313 children with a poem by Mehdi Banihashemi, was named the Top Revolutionary Event of the Year.

Ruhi was awarded at the ceremony.

Different groups have performed the anthem during numerous gatherings organized by governmental organizations across the country over the past year.

The Islamic Revolution Art Week is organized every year to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of documentarian Morteza Avini.

He was killed by a landmine in 1993 during his last trip to the former Iran-Iraq war zone in southwestern Iran while making a documentary about soldiers who were still listed as missing in action.

Photo: Songwriter Mohammad-Mehdi Sayyar (R) accepts a bouquet of flowers from Art Bureau deputy director Ali Foruzanfar after being named the Eternal Figure of Revolutionary Art in Tehran on April 16, 2023. (Fars/Mehdi Marizad)

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