The song, titled “Az Kfoufkom”, is one of the songs from the album “Shayfa Fik” that Asala Al-Ahad released, and it is classified within the Kurdish heritage, but it was attributed to the young Kurdish composer and arranger, Ari Jan. Jean received the largest percentage of criticism, with accusations of deceiving Asala and art theft.
The song was sung by the late Kurdish singer Muhammad Aref Al-Jazrawi, and is classified within Kurdish folklore. Syrian journalist Masoud Akko wrote through his personal account on “Facebook”: “I do not know why some people belittle Ari Jean’s theft of the song of the great Kurdish artist Hassan Jaziri (Kevokim lê lê), which is his most famous song, and assigning it words and melody to him, and giving it to the artist Asala to sing it. For this song. A clear and real composer and composer, recorded with his voice in the Kurdish section of Radio Baghdad in the 1950s, and documented in UNESCO as a Kurdish cultural heritage. This is the right of this artist, so why be reckless?
Journalist Muhammad Hassan wrote: “The so-called Ari Jan stole the tunes and lyrics of a well-known Kurdish song, “Az Kafkom.” And he published a clip of the original song, sending a message to the artist, Asala Nasri, by saying: “A copy to the artist, Asala Nasri, and those interested in art, this song has been heard by all of us since we were children.”
The wave of criticism of the new song escalated, and political analyst Khurshid Daly wrote in “Facebook”: “Even our beautiful traditional songs that we were brought up on, distorted in the name of modernity, redistribution and aesthetics. It is only trade, sir. I am talking about the Az Kivucom massacre between Ari Jan, Asala and the producing company.” .
In addition, Kurdish media published that another song by Asala entitled “Let us sing tonight” was also attributed to Ari Jean, but it is in fact from the heritage of the Syrian island, and its words were written by Ezzedine Hadidi, composed and sung by the artist Ibrahim Kivu.
And Kivu himself wrote through his personal account on “Facebook”: “I will start my words with a lot of oppression and unfairness. I say, woe, woe, woe, woe, and what this word means.” He continued: “I have one of the most beautiful songs that I sang in my artistic career. It bears the name Let’s Sing Tonight. It is an Arabic song in the Jazrawi dialect, from the words of my dear friend Izzat Al Hadidi. At the level of Syria, it is still present in the archives of the Syrian Radio and Television.
He denied granting permission to Asala, Ari Jean, and even the “Rotana” company to perform his song, and asked: “Has my right been lost and the work became for others while I came out?”