Azad-Hye,
The group had a mixed religious and ethnical background: Nadeem and Hassan are Shiite Muslims, Diyar is a Kurdish Sunni, Art and Shant are Armenians. They somehow represent the diversity of
During the post-war era they used to compose music on a keyboard, which they left in the trunk of their Volkswagen Passat. The vehicle was also their rehearsal stage, where they used to sing, especially when there was no one from the secret police following their actions. Promoting an English-singing band under such a regime was a risky thing. The group could not get any of their songs to air on Iraqi radio unless they sang for the Big Brother. So Art Haroutounian wrote a piece praising Saddam on his birthday. The song was aired for many times on the ?Voice of Youth? radio program, but their original hit piece was aired only once.
During 2003 and immediately after the invasion of
In December 2003 one of the original members of the group Akhlad Raof (who was replaced for a while with Diyar Dulay), wrote to Azad-Hye: “Hi … I am from the Iraqi boy band called “Unknown to No One” and I was so happy when I saw the report about my band in your website. Actually, as you know, it is so hard for Iraqis to travel outside. First of all let me tell you that Peter Whitehead (the British talent searcher who was interested to introduce us to the World) didn't come to Iraq, because he thought it will be better if the Band goes to London and I think that it is a good idea too, but we faced some problems in issuing the passports, because as you know, we don't have a proper Government now and there wasn't any side who had the real authority to issue passports for us. The Americans decided to make travel documents to those who wanted to travel outside
In an interview with Wendell Steavenson of
Realizing that their dreams were leading them nowhere, the group disbanded and every member went to pursue his own life.
In year 2006:
After three year, it seems that there is new hope for the group. In recent months they were reunited and managed to fulfill their old dream of performing their art in front of foreign audience. They are now in
In an interview with “Money” magazine two years ago, Larry Underwood had said: “Everyone thinks we're crazy for coming to
Larry Underwood thinks of making a success of the band. He has already spent some 500 thousand US dollars for the recording and other expenses. Similar sum is needed for the launching of the record. He is working hard to secure visa to the
Farnaz Fassihi, the Middle East Correspondent of the “Wall Street Journal“, who covered the Iraqi war for the last three years, has written the following story of the reunion of the band:
12 December 2005
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05346/621223.stm
Old article of Azad-Hye about the group:
http://www.azad-hye.net/article/article_view.asp?re=734asa67
Article by Wendell Steavenson in the ?Guardian?:
14 December 2003
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1103839,00.html
