I performed my first concerts to my neighbors
I used to hand out invitations in our neck of the woods. I could feel that the job I did was to be stamped in my destiny. While writing exam work at school, I would say, “no, I don't need these, because anyway I'll become a star, I'll be a singer." My mother was the one who supported me in this.
The thought spinning in my brain was that which my mother had it settle in: “there is nothing impossible in life, you can achieve anything if you want to.”
I had a quite happy childhood
Vanilla scent used to air our home because my mother baked cake for orders. I still remember well how she made beautiful swans from Marshmallow. Remember eating the rest of the creams that my mother had prepared. This vanilla and felicity are the warmth of my childhood.
My mother was the one who instilled a sense of freedom in our mindset
Every evening my mother, brother, sister and I would organize a disco at home. We used to play the latest posh music in our home-based disco, including Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Queen. My dad would DJ the shows. We would turn off the light and dance to a lot of different music. Per- haps that is why we grew up so much freethinkers and liberty lovers.
The first money I earned I gave to my grandmother
At the age of 11, at graduation parties I sang my song “Bahor” (Spring). Back then, royalties used to be given in cash, and I knocked out a back- pack of money. I took that bag to my granny and, while handing it to her, uttered: “Gramma, check this out! Look at this millionaire. I will get even richer when I grow up”. I felt like a great person indeed.
I starred in a TV commercial for Shiribom gum
That advert came to be rather popular back then. Thus everyone would start calling me Shiribom. That same year I went to the children's summer recreation camp, Semurg. My room-mate girls there would ridicule me all way long. I remember that one of those days I lay scratching in my blanket refusing to see or hear anyone. The girls would come and ask me, mocking, "What's up, Shiribom gum, are you upset?" I still remember their names and know how their lives went later. Those events became a major trauma in my inner world.
As far as censorship is concerned
I approach this issue with humor. I do not make a drama out of it, nor do I want to lead the cause to combat it, neither do I try to fight it. Attempts at censorship have only had a positive effect on my work. Because pressure always creates an opposite force. You get a certain feeling of pain and at the same time inspiration to create.
I have never tried to go against the society
I tried to show a different way of life and thinking. I attempted at breaking stereotypes. But I can't change a person if they do not want to go beyond their frames and think more broadly. In general, the pressures on me have made me more tolerant of people who do not understand me. I cannot change them. It is important for me to keep my self and not give up my values.
