Ciwan Haco

Ciwan Haco is a Kurdish singer and musician

He was born in 1957 in Tirbespî, near Qamişlo, in Syria. His grandfather was from Doğançay in Turkey.

He was influenced by Dengbej Mihemed Şêxo and learned to play the saz at a young age. After high school, he moved to Germany, where he studied music at the Ruhr University Bochum. He has said that he created a demo tape with a small cassette recorder at the age of 14.

He was one of the first Kurdish singers to combine Kurdish folk music with Western-style pop music: rock, blues and jazz. 

He is known for simple lyrics on the theme of love. He sometimes sets to music poems by the Kurdish poets Cegerxwîn and Qedrîcan.

Ciwan Haco started giving concerts at 17 and has performed in many parts of Europe. He is very popular both among Kurds both in the diaspora and in the Middle East. His 2003 concert in Batman was attended by more than 200,000; the recording was released as a DVD.

Ciwan Haco currently lives in Swede

Watch a clip from a performance in Gãvle, Sweden, in 2011.

Among NYKCC volunteers, “Gula Sor” is a favorite.

Find him on YouTube on his official site and on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.