Dancing in Paras: The Ultimate Persian Purim Party Playlist

“Dancing in Paras” is a playlist created to celebrate Jewish-Persian identity during the holiday of Purim, whose story unfolds in the ancient Persian kingdom, Paras in Hebrew. Just as our ancestors were dancing in the street of Shushan Ha-Bira, in the days of Ahashverosh, this playlist embraces the joy of a holiday to commemorate communal salvation, resilience, and the feminine courage of Queen Esther.

At its heart are rising feminine voices in the Persian-Jewish music scene: the spiritual sounds of Galeet Dardashti, the Israeli-Iranian dance queens Liraz, Princess Lailah, and Gondi, and the Tehrangeles pop anthems of American-Iranian Jewish singer Ashley Zarah. Surrounding them are the sounds of past, present, and future Iranian music: dancefloor gems from pre-revolutionary Iranian pop (Morteza, Leila Forouhar, Moein, and The Black Cats) alongside contemporary sounds from Iran, such as the folk band Rastak.

The journey moves outward into the diaspora: Kiwi-Iranian rapper CHAII, Danish-Iranian hip-hop group TM BAX, American-Iranian beatmaker ASADI, and Tehrangeles pop star Sasy. “Dancing in Paras” is an invitation to celebrate Purim not only as memory, but as movement: Across generations, diasporas and languages, Judeo-Persian lives on.