Though icons of Afghan music like Ahmad Zahir, Farhad Darya, and the band Stars have been mixing Western and traditionally Afghan styles of music since the 1970s, D.U. is part of a new wave in the youth-led Afghan music scene. Along with the White Page and Afghan-American singer-songwriter Ariana De
miles away in Pasadena, California, Ariana Delawari would go from donning lace gloves and bandanas as she danced and sang along with Madonna songs in her bedroom, to parties in the living room of her childhood home where her father's friends played live covers of Afghan singer-songwriter Ahmad Zahir
From the statement-making songs of the Material Girl and the King of Afghan music (Ahmad Zahir), Delawari would go on to embrace the protest music of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Bjork, K'naan, and Radiohead. As Dylan asked, "How many years can some people exist / Before theyre allowed to be free?" Dela
"As an Afghan I feel like how can I not address the years of destruction and injustice our people have been living with," says Delawari of an album that includes a re-write of an Ahmad Zahir song originally about infatuation. The song about wanting to enter the house of the beloved becomes a ruminat
