GOOGOOSH

Before there was Cher or Madonna, Iran had Googoosh. For the first time, one of the biggest pop stars of the 20th century tells her story: her rise to fame in pre-revolution Iran, her arrest and imprisonment by Revolutionary forces, her twenty-year exile, and finally, her triumphant return to the global stage.

"My story is not only my story. It's about our past, my country, how it was, what it became, what happened to the people, to artists."

What would happen to the country's biggest pop star if religious extremists took control? In the wake of Iran's Islamic revolution, singer Googoosh found out. She was ordered by her government to never sing again, and for twenty years, she didn't. Until she did.

In the first complete telling of her story, pop superstar Googoosh reveals the never-before-told details of her difficult upbringing in the tumultuous 50s and 60s in Iran. By the 70s, she was everywhere: on the covers of magazines, in TV shows, at film premiers and fashion shows. Her songs played non-stop on the radio, the de-facto soundtrack to Iran's bourgeoning pre-revolution culture. Then, at the peak of her career, the 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the country and brought her career to a stunning halt. She became a target of religious clerics and the Revolutionary Guard. What follows is a harrowing tale of oppression, intimidation, and exile.

After more than twenty years away from her homelandforbidden to sing or speak outshe found her voice at the turn of the millennium, once again on the international stage. Now, inspired by the brave women of Iran on the front lines fighting for their freedoms, Googoosh finally tells her story, and with it, the story of a country once again on the brink.

Born Faegheh Atashin in 1950, Googoosh is Iran's first and biggest popstar. She now lives in Los Angeles.