‘I had to sign a pledge that I would NEVER sing again – or face execution’

Mirror

Nawroz Oranari has enchanted audiences around the world with his stunning voice.

But the 59-year-old’s musical gifts mask a story of hardship and extraordinary heartbreak.

As a teenager growing up in Iraqi Kurdistan, the young singer was forced to flee his homeland to escape the violence of Saddam Hussein’s rule – and the threat of execution.

His only crime? Being accused of singing songs that were critical of the regime.

“I was arrested and, together with my father, had to sign a pledge that I would never sing again – not even at home with friends. If I did I would be executed,” he says.

Only 17 when he left his family behind, Nawroz spent the next nine years in exile in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, before finally settling in the UK. Now a British citizen, the 59-year-old is one of the soloists with the National Lottery-funded Citizens of the World Choir, which he joined in 2018.

This group of refugees and asylum seekers was started by a British music teacher to promote healing through music, and greater understanding of people displaced by war, famine and persecution.

But the sadness remains. After leaving home, Nawroz saw his parents only briefly on two occasions before they died – his mother as a result of Saddam’s infamous chemical attack on the Kurds – and he has lost contact with his two sisters. “I don’t have a wife, don’t have kids, don’t have that many friends – I don’t even have a dog! So the choir is like my new family,” he says.