Beyond the algorithm of Gulê: The masked musician and the AI voice taking Kurdish culture global

Description

It started at a red light on a quiet Sunday. Inside a car in Stuttgart, Germany, two young producers and artists, Baris Korkmaz and Luwam Mesfin, were listening to a new track they had just finalized. Mesfin pulled out her phone, recorded a casual video of them nodding to the rhythm, and uploaded it to TikTok. Within hours, the numbers began to climb: first 50,000 views, then 100,000. Before long, the track had erupted into a global phenomenon. The song, “Kurmancî Her e Gulê,” is not a standard pop anthem. It is sung in Kurmanji, a widely spoken yet historically marginalized Kurdish dialect that has faced severe suppression and forced assimilation over the past century. Today, its infectious rhythm has transcended borders, echoing from cars in London to the smartphones of Turkish actors and youth across the globe. Millions of people - many of whom have never spoken a word of Kurdish - are suddenly singing along to the word “Kurmanji.”