For me, one of the most interesting things about Arash when he first hit the charts two years ago was the degree to which he or his record label played up the "Bollywood" angle to his sound - odd for a Persian singing in Farsi with no obvious connection to India. While much of that can be put down to the fact that Hindi pop culture was rather in vogue at the time in the West (and has always been in Eastern Europe where families will sit down and watch a four-hour Mumbai melodrama just as happily as they would in Asia) there may have been a sense that making explicit references to his controversial homeland might have been a little too sensitive. Iran Iran drives a coach and horses through the latter idea though. I think it was tied in to the Islamic Republic's disappointing summer of football. It's a terrific song though - there may be three and a half years until the next World Cup but it might come in handy if you fancy cheering on the underdog in any future wars.


Arash - Iran Iran

Lucky Twice are a more conventional product of the Swedish pop industry and currently doing quite well in Ukraine. While the music may be gleefully bouncy Euro-pop, the lyrics to Lucky, seemingly about the joys of self-deception, are amazingly bleak.

Lucky Twice - Lucky (Youtube Video)