Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

An Israeli singer is set to release an album she made in secret with Iranian musicians despite bitter animosity between their home countries.

Liraz Charhi, 42, an Israeli singer of Persian heritage, will release the album she put together by secretly collaborating with Iranian artists next month.

In an interview, Charhi said that she had feared for the lives of those who worked with her in Iran.

The Islamic Republic is a bitter foe of her home country, and even passed a law earlier this year making it illegal to cooperate with Israel.

Charhi said: “Technically, it was very difficult, but emotionally it was much more difficult. I felt night after night that I was doing a bad thing, and that these people could be arrested.”

Charhi, whose parents were from Iran, said that she contacted Iranian artists online, wanting to find suitable singers, songwriters, and musicians of the traditional baglama stringed instrument.

Many Iranian musicians were willing to work with the Israeli artist. However, some insisted that their real names not be used.

Some later dropped out of the project after initially agreeing, even changing their social media names.

Iranian songwriter Raman Loveworld said: “I know it is dangerous to work on this project, but we are just normal people.

The result, Charhi’s second Persian-language album ‘Zan’ (‘Women’), will be released by Glitterbeat Records on 13th November.

The album reportedly includes electro-dance themes and remixes of 1970s Iranian pop.

Charhi’s parents moved to Israel in 1970, at time when the country enjoyed strong relations with Iran. Nearly a decade later that changed with the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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