Detailed information about the cause of death of Mehdi Sepehr, known by his stage name Sepehr, has not been disclosed. However, Mr. Sepehr lost his wife last Bahman (around January–February), and death came for him after he had celebrated his last birthday the previous summer with this wish: “If life allows, I will sing for you again.” The 1979 Revolution somewhat distorted the public image of Mehdi Sepehri, who in the early 1970s had been on his way to becoming the image of a prominent singer, yet it could not erase his artistic concerns and aspirations.
He had clearly understood that there was a boundary between nostalgic music, rooted in the past, and the new reality shaped by a revolution whose leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had compared the effect of music on the human mind to that of heroin. Perhaps it can be said that he was fortunate in his wanted or unwanted confrontation with hardline revolutionaries who categorized music as “halal” or “haram.” Along with a small number of singers from earlier generations, he managed to survive the censorship of the newly established revolutionary government.
