Toomaj Salehi sings in Italian: «Don’t cry for me but for your absence/turn on the music now that the lights have gone out in the street». It’s impressive and moving to hear the voice of the Iranian rapper in prison sing these words. «It’s the idea of my friend Willie Peyote who used fragments of Toomaj’s speeches, put them in rhyme and sang them. With the help of Artificial Intelligence we managed to reproduce his timbre”, explains Eugenio Cesaro of Eugenio in Via Di Gioia, an indie band from Turin.
They didn’t do it on purpose, but the new single “I’ll make more noise than ratatata”dedicated to Toomaj and written with Willie Peyotecomes out on the very day that Iran is voting for the presidential elections and where a very low turnout is expected in protest against the dictatorship of the ayatollahs. “When we wrote this song, our thoughts did not immediately go to the condition of the Iranian people and its artists. Then, Willie listened to the song and told us that these words reminded him of the story of Toomaj, a singer of Gen Z who fights against the regime. We wrote the final part of the song with him and we came into contact with the Courier e the Iranian actor and director Ashkan Khatibithanks to which we were able to hear Toomaj’s lawyers who decided to participate in the project from prison”, continues Cesaro.
From these intersections of ideas a collective campaign was born for demand the release of the Iranian rapper whose death sentence has just been revoked, probably for electoral purposes. “A campaign that becomes the symbol of the fight against those who take away the voice and for those who lose it. Against the censorship that reaches its peak in dictatorships but is also creeping in democratic countries,” says Cesaro. On June 21, the day of the Music Festival, Eugenio sang on stage «I’ll make more noise than ratatata». «Khatibi also came up with us and since that evening many artists have responded to our appeal», says the singer.
Among which: Malika Ayane, Subsonica, Paolo Fresu, the director Olmo Parenti, Piero Pelù, Jack Savoretti, Roy Paci, Tosca and many others. «In Italy it is difficult to take a position, but we think that the courage of an artist like Toomaj who puts that of his people before his own freedom is an example for everyone».
