BAGHDAD, 15 June 2003 — They call themselves Unknown To No One, but the five Iraqis bidding to become the world’s next chart-topping boy band are not exactly famous. Yet.
Despite being so short of places to rehearse that they often have to practice their singing while driving around the bomb-scarred streets of Baghdad crammed into an old Volkswagen Passat, the five young men have attracted the interest of a British pop consultant who thinks they can make it big.
The toppling of Saddam Hussein has given them the chance to chase their dream. But militant groups are growing in influence in Iraq — and the last thing they would want to see is an Iraqi boy band singing and dancing in matching outfits.
Cinemas, breweries and alcohol stores have been threatened and attacked by militant groups, and in many areas women have been told not to walk outdoors without a veil. But Unknown To No One say they won’t let extremists get in their way.
“We lived under dictatorship for 35 years. I’m not prepared to go through that again, and I don’t think anybody is,” said lead singer Nadeem Hamed, a 20-year-old biology student. “If people attack us for being in a band, that’s terrorism.”
The band’s members — they chose five as it is the standard boy band size — span Iraq’s religious and ethnic spectrum.
Founders Art Haroutunian, 25, and Shant Garabedian, 24, are Armenian Christians. Diyar Diler is a 21-year-old Sunni Muslim Kurd. Hamed and 21-year-old Hassan Ali Al-Falluji are Shiite Arabs.
“We are all brothers here,” said Haroutunian, who writes the band’s songs. “There is no racism. No civil war.”
Haroutunian and Garabedian formed the band in 1999 and advertised for members on Voice of Youth FM, the only radio station which played Western pop music during Saddam’s rule. It was owned by Saddam’s notorious playboy son Uday.
“We were inspired by boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, Westlife, those guys,” said Falluji, who is studying chemistry at university. “They’re famous and their music is really cool.”
But the band’s trendy haircuts, Western clothes and their decision to sing in English were frowned on.
“Saddam and his regime were hostile toward the West, and anything coming from Western culture was considered destructive to our society,” said Haroutunian, who works for the Trade Ministry.
“They said the youth should be soldiers, must be ready to fight. Not ready to sing, to have love songs and such things.”
A CD they recorded sold less than 2,000 copies. But one reached Peter Whitehead, a British pop consultant who runs an Internet database of aspiring bands. He was so impressed by one of their songs, “Hey Girl”, that he plans to come to Baghdad.
The band believes that with professional backing, they can polish the single and make it a global chart-topper.
“I’d like to be the most famous rock star in the whole world,” Hamed said. “I know it’s a dream, but I dreamed people would hear of us outside of Iraq and it’s happened, so why not try to push the dream further?”
Haroutunian said he was less concerned about selling millions of records than sending the right message about Iraq.
“The most important thing for me is not to get to the UK charts, but to reach the public in the West,” he said.
“We want to show that Iraq is not a bad country. There are people who are educated, and cultivated, who really want to live in peace. We are not terrorists.”
But while they may one day have to deal with the pressures of fame, the band have more pressing things to worry about for the moment — the chaos of postwar Iraq, a lack of instruments and equipment, and the disapproval of their parents.
“They told us we should get a job, earn a living, not spend our lives as musicians,” said Garabedian, a goldsmith.
“They told us being pop musicians had no future here in Baghdad.”
There are few places they can practice. They usually sing while driving, or in Falluji’s bedroom in a modest two-storey Baghdad house. The room’s walls are covered with posters of rock bands and a picture of US actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
“There’s nowhere else to go,” Haroutunian said.
All of the group have jobs or study at university, making it difficult to find time for music.
“We were in college, and we were working, and we were singing. We didn’t have that much time,” Haroutunian said.
“If you ask a pop band how long they are rehearsing each day, it’s eight hours or 10 hours. We didn’t have the time, just two or three hours. We didn’t know if we were doing it right. We had no training. We just listened to CDs we liked and tried to create songs. It was very difficult for us.”
Garabedian says that despite the difficulties, if the band is given a chance it will prove it can reach the top.
“As an Iraqi band who suffered all these years under the embargo and the sanctions and the regime, if we just reach the lowest position in the UK charts our dream would come true,” he said.
“Once we get there, with more help from big record companies, we could get to No. 1. I’m sure of that.”
