The crowd goes wild for Iranian pop idol Benyamin Bahadori as the heartthrob of the country’s young people begins his set. But his ballads seem to be missing part of his signature sound. A clue lies in a lone cello resting on stage. The drama began just before the Dec. 26 concert commenced in Tehran. The musician’s team filed the official paperwork, but minutes before he was set to go on stage, authorities prevented his female cellist, Melanie Avanessian, from performing.
“In her honor, and [in honor of] the people who had come to see her, we left her seat empty by her instrument,” Benyamin’s producer, Salim Ahmadi, told the Iranian Labor News Agency on Dec. 27.
