On October 19, 2022 it was uploaded to the channel Azadi from YouTube a mashups (collage of musical pieces) by Homeland and Lifeperformed by Cuban rappers Yotuel Romero, Descemer Bueno, Maykel osorb Castillo, El Funky and the group Gente de Zona, and Baraye ( By…), performed by Iranian singer Shervin Hajipour.
Homeland and Life was associated with the 2021 demonstrations against the Cuban regime and the Communist Party. In the same way, Baraye it became the anthem of the ongoing protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“For dancing in the streets (in Iran it is forbidden to dance in public). For every time we were afraid to kiss our lovers. For the shame of an empty pocket. For longing for a normal life… For women, life, freedom (the slogan of the protest). For freedom”, says the letter of Barayewhich has been extracted from messages posted on social networks by Iranians.
Both songs are hymns to freedom. In fact, both countries are under dictatorships allied and declared enemies of the United States, which began with “evil” revolutions (as the song says Homeland and Life). In 1959, the Cuban Revolution brought dictator Fidel Castro to power, and in 1979 (exactly twenty years later), the Iranian revolution overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty and replaced it with the Islamic Republic under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
After Khomeini’s death in 1989, Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei became the supreme leader of Iran and the longest-serving dictator in the Middle East.
It is worth noting that Hajipour was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards, after spreading the song on Instagram Baraye. Similarly, the Cuban rapper Maykel Osorbo was sentenced to nine years in prison, while the artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (who also participated in the video for the song Homeland and Life) was sentenced to five years in prison.
East mashups shows that the demands for freedom continue to resonate from Havana to Tehran, waiting for the world to finally hear them.
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