Yet it was passing the rigorous examination of the demanding master Ali Tajvidi that truly opened the path to pop music for him. On that day, Sepehr was the final candidate to enter the audition room after a succession of earlier performances had exhausted Tajvidi’s patience. Enchanted by the style and performance of Aref, the singer of “Soltane Ghalbha,” Mehdi Sepehr performed the technically challenging song “Polhaye Shekasteh” (“Broken Bridges”), written by Parviz Vakili.
The song had emerged from Aref’s successful late-1960s collaboration with the music group Golden Ring and Jamshid Zandi. His rendition earned Ali Tajvidi’s approving smile. That approval led Tajvidi to entrust him with the composition “Dar Kam-e Amvaj” (“In the Grip of the Waves”), with lyrics by Karim Fakour, for performance. The Sepehr of the 1970s embodied the image of a young singer striving to establish himself across diverse musical spaces.
