Aryana currently lives in the UK and has her own music band – she occasionally sings duet songs with Afghan artists.

Aryana Sayeed Pictures

Waleed Mohamand, an up and coming young artist from Australia has teamed up with Sash Studios to bring you two fabulous and Mast music videos:

Waleed Mohmand MP3 songs for download (Right click + save target as)

Waleed Mohmand – Soy-e Qataghan
Waleed Mohmand – Lab-e Labat

I thought I could share this laugh with you guys… enjoy.

The band, Kabul Dreams, is made up of vocalist Sulaymon Qardash, bass player Siddique Ahmad and drummer Mujtaba Habibi, who claim to be the country’s first and only rock and roll group.

“One year ago in December we decided to create this band and since it was happening in Kabul, we thought Kabul Dreams is a good name,” says the 19-year-old vocalist, who bears a distinct resemblance to Liam Gallagher of the British band Oasis.

“It’s a real dream to play indie rock music in Afghanistan.”

Watch the video of The dream of all my life below:

Catching on fast
I caught up with the three-piece in Delhi, where they took part in the South Asian Bands Festival, which seeks to promote regional cultural ties.

Qardash – who likes indie fashion – grew up listening to Britpop bands like Radiohead and Travis.

With the political turmoil which gripped Afghanistan in the 1990s, all three members sought refuge in the neighbouring countries of Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Iran, where they were influenced by the Western music they heard.

“During the years of the Taliban, we were away and one positive thing for all of us was that we had an opportunity to learn music and have good facilities where we could practise,” says Ahmad, who lived in Pakistan for 10 years and played with bands producing new music.

While original Afghan music is closely associated with traditional instruments like the rubab and dombura, indie rock is still a new genre – but it is catching on fast among Afghan youth.

Exposure
“Lots of young people are listening to rock music,” says Ahmad.

“Because we don’t have any rock music, they listen to international bands and music from neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan.

“We thought it was about time for Afghanistan to have its own rock band.”

The group mixes Afghan rhythmic patterns with rock and roll music.

And what’s more unusual, they sing in English.

“Since the three of us come from three different parts of Afghanistan and speak in three different languages – Pashto, Dari and Uzbek – we thought it would be a good idea to sing in English,” says Ahmad.

Habibi, on drums, feels they will also get more international exposure with a language that is spoken widely.

But first things first: the band has yet to release an album.

So far the trio have only performed for a niche group of expats, non-governmental organisation workers and educated young Afghans familiar with the new genre.

But the continuing security threats in the country have placed restrictions on public gatherings and their performances.

And in the absence of an organised music industry, new bands like Kabul Dreams face difficulties in financing and producing their music.

“Other bands around the world have lots of opportunities and facilities, but we have to do everything ourselves,” says Ahmad.

“We have a video shoot, we have to take care of everything. There is no production house that we could go to.”

Provocative
The 27-year-old studies during the day and works with Habibi in a recording studio.

Qardash is a presenter with a private TV and radio station. Much of their salaries is invested in Kabul Dreams.

Despite the challenges, the trio want to bring a musical revolution to the Islamic country, where playing rock music is considered too Western and provocative.

“Playing rock music is a risk but we want to play in Afghanistan,” says Qardash, as he tunes his guitar.

“We love our country and we want to change our young generation, we want to make something new.”

Ahmad points out that Kabul Dreams is truly multi-ethnic, consisting as it does of an Uzbek, Pashtun and Tajik.

“The reason we formed this band was to give a message to the Afghan youth, a message that they can live together,” he says.

BBC News

Presented to you by our sister site VirtualAfghans.com, the following is a list of most notable and downloaded hit songs of 2009 which gained great popularity and exposure on a variety of websites, radio stations and satellite channels. These songs have been compiled exclusively by Virtual Afghans and appear in no particular order of rating or significance.

Hope you enjoy the songs… don’t forget to downloaded high quality and voice free mp3′s of the songs in links below… comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Note: The MP3 songs of this album will be available for download very soon… please keep checking.

The 4th Annual Ariana Television Network’s Awards show was held in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday, December 5th, 2009.  Your favorite Afghan celebrities and artists from all over the world were invited and given recognition for their achievements. The awards show reached a global television audience covering the majority of Afghans everywhere. It was a wonderful opportunity for supporting Afghan culture and the performing arts.

The recorded program will likely be broadcasted end of December or for new years.

Below is the list of 2009 award recipients (not in order):

Best Male Artist: Farhad Darya
Best Female: Naghma
Best New Male: Shekeb Osmani
Best New Female: Ghazal
Best Duo: Hafiz & Devyani Ali
Best Ghazal Artist: Najim Nawabi
Best Mahali Artist: Mir Maftoon
Best Album: Jawid Sharif (Kankaash)
Best Track: Bia Janam (Tawab Arash)
Best Music Video: Atish Ba Dilam (Valy)
Best Patriotic Song: Shahe Mardan (Jawid Sharif)
Best Lyrics: Maadar (Hafiy & Devyani)
Best Light Song: Dokhtar-e Afghan (Mozhdah)
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients: Zahir Howaida, Afsana, Rahim Mehryar, Parasto, Ustad Arman, Madadi

AfghanMP3.com editor’s note:
Though better than last year’s show… like most of you, we felt that some of the awards given in certain categories were biased simply because certain artists have videos and program deals with Ariana Television Network.

No disrespect to Tawab Arash and Jawid Sharif – they’re both great artists, but by awarding Bia Janam and Shah-e Mardaan as Best Song and Best Patriotic Song of the year respectively, is ATN telling us that they are better than Latif Nangarhari’s Afghanistan or Farhad Darya’s Atan? Mozhdah’s Dokhtar-e Afghan for Best Light Song? You kidding me!

We are witnessing small but positive signs of Afghan music industry picking itself up through the production of better music and videos as well as tv programs… let’s hope that people in charge of such award and tv shows do justice by selecting and awarding the appropriate winners instead of playing favors or the usual biased politics.

Some fundemental changes are necessary, both by TV stations and our artists, if we want to see our music industry succeed in the right direction.

I think a lot of fans were patiently waiting for this video to be produced… but now it’s official: Jawid Sharif has just released the video of his hit song Tajik Dokhtarak.

Watch the video and let others know what you think.

Download Tajik Dokhtarak MP3 (Right click + Save)

Shabnam, a renowned Tajiki singer from Tajikistan, took over the Afghan music industry by a wave of songs backed by really well done videos. Most of her work nowadays seem to be catered for her Afghan fans as she clearly copies and re-sings old but hit Afghan tracks (Az Kodam Safar, Sabza Ba Naam, Sheeshta Bashom, Qarsak and many more…) that are dear to us all. Most notably, she is popular in Afghanistan because she works with singers from the country and sometimes also covers songs from them, either with them together or with their permission (e.g. her duets with Jonibek Murodov, Jawid Sharif or Najib Nawabi and Khaled Kayhan).

Below you can find some songs and videos by Shabnam Suraya.

Download Biya Ke Burem Baagh MP3 (Right click + Save)
Download Sabza Ba Naaz MP3 (Right click + Save)
Download Namedanam MP3 (Right click + Save)

Drop a line or two and tell us what do you think of her songs and what she really means to our music industry.

View Shabnam Suraya pictures

Download Setara MP3 (Right click + Save)

Album : Shahanshah
Singer : Najim Nekzad
Lyrics : Homayra Nekhat Dastgirzada
Music : Aarash Howaida
Directed By : Tamim Ashrafi

Enjoy.