Mansour
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Mansour (Mansour Jafari Mamaghani, born 28 July 1971 in Tehran) is a contemporary Iranian singer, actor, composer and fashion designer. From a new generation of rising singers of the exiled Iranian community based in Southern California, he is now ranked as one of the top male singers of the Iranian music scene. Beside Iran, he also has a fan base in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan.
Despite the Iranian government’s restrictions on pop music, he has nevertheless been able to eclipse other singers in gaining a wide recognition in that country. Equally popular among both men and women, his songs now serve various ceremonial openings of events, such as soccer games, weddings and private parties. Due to the lively nature of his music that has engaged and absorbed the youth of Iran, he is now permanently banned from returning or performing for any reason in that country.
Mansour was born in Tehran, Iran. Little is known of his early childhood years, though he was said to be an artistic child. Nothing is said of his propensity for music or singing at this time; however, it is speculated that with the war with Iraq at its climax, the psychology of most Iranians, young and old, was inhibited. With the devastating effects of the war and the restrictions of the clerical regime, small part of his family immigrated to the United States when Mansour was young.
In 1991, Mansour embarked on recording his first album. A project that would eventually take three years to complete, the debutante is said to spend much time in preparation to refine his voice and vocal techniques under rigorous training lessons. He also insisted on hand-picking the producers, lyricists and arrangers for this album, all of which he financed from the revenues of a pager and cell phone store that he owned.
In August 1994, Mansour’s debut album Ferferehayeh Bi Baad (started in 1991) was released through Caltex Records. Labeled as fresh and different for its upbeat and electronic pop textures, it garnered the attention of the new generation of Persian speaking youths of exiled Iranians who had become accustomed to Western music of similar type and thus easily accepted this mode of style into the Iranian music. In this album , Mansour works with some of the greatest Persian musicians such as: Siavash Ghomayshi, Abdi Yamini, Hassan Shamaeizadeh and Manouchehr Cheshmazar. And also famous lyricists like : Shahyar Ghanbari, Homayoun Hooshyarnejad and Masoud Fardmanesh.
In 2008, he married his girlfriend Sogol in a private reception attended by many Persian celebrities and Mansour's close friends like Moein.
