Viral Iranian protest song ‘Baraye’ receives 95,000 submissions for new Grammy award

‘Baraye’ has already amassed 1.8 million streams on Spotify. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A viral song about the protests in Iran surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini has received thousands of requests to win a newly introduced Grammy award.

Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour created ‘Baraye’, the now viral song in response to the worldwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was killed by Iran’s morality police for improperly wearing her hijab.

The song is made up of messages posted on social media with people’s reasons as to why they are protesting Iran’s regime and the brutal killing of innocent people.

Hajipour was allegedly arrested for releasing the song by authorities on September 29 but has since been released on bail.

Iranians sent messages of why they are protesting, why they are risking their lives. This man turned these messages into a song. 😭💔❤️#baraye #ShervinHajipour pic.twitter.com/VjYdLjRiZG

— Pax cat 🧡 (@WelshFelix) October 12, 2022

‘Baraye’ has been branded by many as the anthem of Iranian protestors and according to CEO of the Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr, there have been nearly 100,000 nominations for the viral song to be nominated for a Grammy.

“The Academy is deeply moved by the overwhelming volume of submissions for Shervin Hajipour’s “Baraye” (“For The Sake Of”) for our new Special Merit Award, Best Song for Social Change”.

The recording academy recently introduced the new category as an award that “recognizes creators of message-driven music that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact”.

It’s been almost a month since the killing of Mahsa Amini but protests only continue to strengthen with people refusing to be repressed by their government.

According to the Iran Human Rights organisation over 200 people have been killed as a result of demonstrations but according to Associate professor of History at the London School of Economics Roham Alvandi “this is not a protest for reform”.

“This is an uprising demanding the end of the Islamic Republic. And that is something completely different to what we’ve seen before,” he told CNN.

Schoolchildren can be seen on social media removing their hijabs, taking to the streets and yelling “death to the dictator”.