The One & Only Googoosh: Iran’s Beloved Superstar

While other Iranian children played and attended school, Faegheh Atashin (b. 1950) performed in her acrobat father’s vaudeville acts, rising to fame with a singing voice that sounded “like the warbling bolbols that woke us at dawn.” Under the stage name Googoosh, she became a cultural icon, even inspiring fashion trends, but the Iranian Revolution in 1979 abruptly stopped her career, banning solo musical performances by women. As many Iranians fled, “scattering across the world/ like wild, wind-blown poppies,” Googoosh’s music survived on recordings abroad until, in 2000, a political shift allowed her to again travel and perform. Second-person narration presents Googoosh’s legacy through the lens of the Iranian diaspora. Westergaard’s highly dimensional collage work, patterned and embellished with block prints, brush pens, and colored pencil, leans into portraiture and stage scenes in this ode to a beloved figure—“our one and only/ Googoosh.” An author’s note and biography conclude. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)