Mahasti | |
|---|---|
 Mahasti in 1970s | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Eftekhar Dadehbala[a] |
| Born | 16 November 1946 Tehran, Iran[1] |
| Died | 25 June 2007 (aged 60) Santa Rosa, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1965–2007 |
Eftekhar Dadehbala[a] (Persian: افتخار ددهبالا; 16 November 1946 – 25 June 2007), known by her stage name Mahasti (مهستی), was an Iranian singer of Persian classical, folk, and pop music with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. She was active for more than four decades.
Khadijeh Eftekhar Dadehbala was born on 16 November 1946, in Tehran, Iran.[4] She was the younger sister of Iranian singer Hayedeh.[5] Their parents later divorced and married other people. Mahasti started her career on the Persian traditional music radio program "Gol hâ ye Rangârang" (Persian: گلهای رنگارنگ "Colorful Flowers") in 1963, with the song "Ân ke Delam Râ Borde Khodâyâ" (Persian: آنكه دلم را برده خدایا) composed and arranged by maestro Parviz Yahaghi with lyrics by Bijan Taraghi.[citation needed]
In the beginning, Mahasti's family was reluctant to allow her to pursue a career in entertainment because it was not an appreciated career for women in Iran at that time. However, Mahasti overcame this stigma providing Iran with a new image for women within the entertainment industry.
Mahasti created an image of a "gentle-woman" singer, a lady with great manners. Her enormous success in music opened the pathway for many other women, including her elder sister, Hayedeh, who started her work 5 years after Mahasti. The two sisters had tremendous contributions to improving the image of female singers in Iran and in transitioning the Iranian music from where it was to where it is now.[6]
In 1978, before the Iranian Revolution. she emigrated to the United Kingdom, and then to the United States in 1981, where she lived thereafter.
In March 2007, Mahasti publicly announced that she had been battling colon cancer for four years. She hoped that her experience would raise awareness within the Iranian community regarding cancer and the importance of regular physical examinations. She was then living in Santa Rosa, California with her daughter, Sahar, her husband, Naser, and their two children, Natasha and Natalie, her only grandchildren. She died on 25 June 2007, aged 60, in Santa Rosa.
Mahasti was interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California on 29 June 2007, the same cemetery where her sister Hayedeh was also buried.
Her funeral was broadcast live on Persian Broadcasting Company Tapesh and was attended by many Persian celebrities and stars and other artists including the mayor of Beverly Hills Jimmy Delshad and designer Bijan Pakzad.[7][8][9]
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