Hero & Frya

Hero & Frya is a Kurdish duo - band combining pop and rock with Kurdish folklore elements. Their songs feature themes including love, displacement, oppression, and Kurdish independence.

They formed the band in 2011 in the Kurdish city Mahabad, Iran. Due to the Iranian Islamic Republic’s laws against female singers, stating that women are not allowed to sing in public, they left for Erbil in Kurdistan, Iraq. They continued recording and performing their music, with a large following, but still facing harassment and persecution.

In 2022, they arrived in Sweden and took up an ICORN residency for two years. They have been active in the the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement, which started in 2022 after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police in Iran, releasing two Kurdish rock songs, 'Ema Nabazin' ('We are unbeatable') and 'Wara' ('Come'), to keep the spirit of freedom fighters up and raise awareness. Both songs gained considerable public attention as they were among the first revolutionary ('Woman, Life, Freedom' movement) songs in a Kurdish language and sang by a female artist.