Before the Revolution (1953–1979) Googoosh began her career at a very young age as a singer and dancer working in the stage shows of her father, Saber, a cabaret artist and acrobat. to declamatory, emotional ballads dealing with love and loss, comparable to the
chanson style of music by artists like
Édith Piaf. Her music was popular among non-Persian-speaking audiences as well. She starred in over 25 movies, one of which was to be the most commercially successful Iranian motion picture of all time. Googoosh performed many times for the royal family and was a favorite of Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's wife and children. She performed at the party given for the 17th birthday of
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran.
Revolution and hiatus (1979–2000) At the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Googoosh was in
Los Angeles. However, feeling homesick, she decided to return to Iran. In response to why she remained in Iran after the revolution, she said that it was "out of love for her homeland". Despite being a symbol of many things that the revolution tried to overturn, especially related to perceptions of excessive Westernization, Googoosh remained in Iran for years afterward. The regime imposed a lien on her residence, prevented her from receiving a passport and imprisoned her at one point. After the revolution, Googoosh, like other artists, was forbidden from performing and her material was banned. She did not perform again until
Mohammad Khatami's presidency, during which she was allowed to tour outside of the country after obtaining a contract to perform overseas.
Departure from Iran and comeback (2000–present) Googoosh left Iran and went to Canada in 2000, after being in Iran for 21 years following the Iranian Revolution.
Chicago Tribune considers the return of Googoosh to be "more than just a pop milestone" but instead "a cultural marker, a measure of the way change occurs in a society that for more than two decades has tried to resist the tide of globalization by living in self-imposed isolation." In 2000, Googoosh sang in public, away from her homeland, for the first time after 21 years of silence to the acclaim of many long-time fans. The
Googoosh Comeback Tour was a series of concerts starting in July 2000. She began with a sold-out concert at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on 29 July 2000 (with an audience of more than 12,000), The two Dubai concerts held special importance: it was the tour finale, and Googoosh was rumored to be planning to return to Iran. In 2000, a feature-length documentary called ''Googoosh: Iran's Daughter'' was released which chronicled the singer's life and her icon-status while detailing the socio-political turmoil that led to the 1979 Revolution in Iran. Made by Iranian-American filmmaker Farhad Zamani, the documentary began production in 1998 and was made at a time when Googoosh was still forbidden to give interviews. Googoosh started collaborating with
Mehrdad Asemani with
QQ Bang Bang (2003). They continued their collaborating in the albums
Akharin Khabar (2004),
Manifest (2005) and
Shabe Sepid (2008). Most of the lyrics of these albums were by
Shahyar Ghanbari. Beginning in 2011, she served as head-of-academy and head-judge alongside
Hooman Khalatbari and Babak Saeedi for the widely popular talent show/singing competition
Googoosh Music Academy, which was broadcast on the London-based Iranian satellite channel
Manoto 1 and was their most watched program. Googoosh Music Academy lasted three seasons. In December 2010, Googoosh held a very notable concert in the Kurdish region of Iraq, to which tens of thousands of Iranians came from Tehran and beyond. In 2010, Googoosh ran a Persian talent competition show called
Googoosh Music Academy. The series ran in Europe and Middle East on Monoto TV channes. Googoosh released the album
Hajme Sabz (Green X) in 2010. She said: "I have tried to have works from different composers and songwriters in this new album". Googoosh chose the name "Aasheghaaneh" for this album, but because of her interest in the book "Hajme Sabz" (The Green Space) by
Sohrab Sepehri, she changed the name of the album. She released her old song
Mano Gonjeshkaye Khooneh with a new arrangement by Babak Amini in this album. In March 2011, Googoosh released a snippet of a new song she was working on, titled
Bedrood, via
YouTube. In April 2011, she debuted her latest project. The singer launched her own cosmetic collection sold online, titled
Googoosh Cosmetics. In April 2011, she held a concert at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as a record breaking performance at the same venue on 27 October 2012, as a part of her worldwide
Ejaz Tour. Also on 26 March 2013 she performed at London's Royal Albert Hall for the first time. In 2012, Googoosh released her 6th studio album since her comeback, titled
Ejaz. The album consisted of 10 tracks, featuring collaborations with Hassan Shamaizadeh (
Hayahoo) and three songs wherein she collaborated with her fellow
Googoosh Music Academy judge Babak Saeedi and with
Raha Etemadi (
Nagoo Bedrood and
Noghteye Payan and
Hese Mobham). She also collaborated with Alireza Afkari and Roozbeh Bemani on three songs (''E'jaz
and Baraye Man
and Behesht
). Another single Bi Manoto'' was a musical rendition of a poem by the Persian poet
Rumi. The poem came to Googoosh's attention while she was banned from singing at the time of the
Iran–Iraq War. She stated that she felt inspired by the lyrics and therefore created her own melody and was finally presented with the opportunity to record it as she had long hoped to do. In February 2014, she released a music video of the song
Behesht, in support of the
gay and lesbian community in Iran, which faces significant challenges
in its struggle for equal rights, including the ongoing threat of the death penalty for convictions related to sexual orientation. This made her the first prominent Iranian with a huge following to speak out against
homophobia in Iran. In the same year, Googoosh released a joint single with
Ebi called
Nostalgia. She started a joint world tour with Ebi with the same name, in which each of them sang some solo songs and some songs together. On 21 March 2015, Googoosh released her 7th album titled
Aks-e Khosoosi (
Private Portrait) including 11 tracks from different songwriters and composers such as Babak Sahraee, Nickan Ebrahimi, Babak Amini (Googoosh band leader). The first song of this album is
Che Ziba Bood, which is also the last song that was composed by
Varujan. Googoosh sang the old
tasnif Morq-e sahar in this album. In 2017, Googoosh started a world tour called "The Memory Makers" with Hassan Shamaizadeh and Ardalan Sarfraz. In the Los Angeles concert of this tour, Ardalan Sarfraz could not attend and
Martik was present in this concert. In 2018, Googoosh released a single song in collaboration with
Martik called
Refaghat, and after positive feedback, she collaborated with Martik in two other songs called
Eshghe Kamyab and
Asheghet Hastam. Googoosh released her last album named
Twenty One in 2021 with the composition of
Siavash Ghomayshi and the lyrics of Raha Etamadi. During production, the trio tested positive for
COVID-19. On 14 September 2023, Googoosh published a video on her official pages in the social media, in which she announced that her new tour (Final Chapter) is her last world tour and a farewell tour. In 2024, a documentary about Googoosh, featuring her own presence, titled
Googoosh – Made of Fire, was released in cinemas in Germany. She published her memoir called
Googoosh: A Sinful Voice on December 2, 2025, co-written with Tara Dehlavi, and the Persian translation of this book, translated by Homa Sarshar, was released on December 10 of the same year. In this book, she revealed for the first time the previously untold parts of her life. Despite the political and personal hardships she has endured, Googoosh has continued to be a beloved figure over the last half century. ==Politics==