Arian Band is the first ever boy & girl pop band in Iran. They were followed by a whole series of boy/girl bands. Starting with their third album, Till Eternity..., released in 2004 they started to show their music to the rest of the world and were nominated for BBC World Music awards recently. The band has become so popular that more than 54,000 tickets to one of their concerts were sold in less than six hours.

Currently the members of the band are:

• Ali Pahlavan (Vocals & Guitar)
• Payam Salehi (Vocals & Guitar)
• Ninef Amirkhas (Keyboard)
• Siamak Khahani (Violin)
• Alireza Tabatabaee (Drum)
• Borzou Badihi (Percussion)
• Sharareh Farnezhad (Guitar, Chorus)
• Sahar Kashmari (Chorus)
• Sanaz Kashmari (Chorus)

In a recent interview with BBC they said: "Now we have a responsibility, we should be better and introduce ourselves all over the world. If you go to Iranian movies all you see is misery - nothing else. People think Iran is like this - everything is a desert, all the people are crying... We wanted to show the real Iran."

External links

• Arian's Official web site (http://www.arianmusic.com)
• Iran's first pop revolutionaries (http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4079581.stm) (An Article from BBC)