Leila Kasra - Biography

Biography

Leila Kasra was born on March 27, 1939 in Tehran. After graduating from high school in Tehran, Kasra moved to England to continue her education where she got a bachelors degree in English Literature from King's College London. When she returned to Iran she was hired in the Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company but she left the job to pursue a career in poetry. In 1956 she wrote columns for the magazines: "Omide Iran", "Roshanfekr", "Etelate Banouan". In 1959 her first poem was published in "Etelate Banouan". In 1969 Kasra published two poetry books. One of her books co won the Television poetry contest and she shared the award with Manouchehr Atashi. In 1975 after Fereydoun Khoshnoud's request Kasra started writing songs and became a lyricist for artists like Elaheh and Hayedeh. The first song she wrote was "Doayeh Sahar" sung by Hayedeh. Before the revolution she wrote famous memorable songs for artist like Hayedeh, Nooshafarin, Elaheh, Ebi, Sattar, Mahasti, Golpa and Nasrin. In 1978 Kasra was diagnosed with breast cancer after giving birth to her third son. Like many Persian artists Kasra moved to the United States after the Iranian Revolution. After the revolution Kasra chose to write songs under the name "Hadieh". She wrote countless memorable songs for artists she had worked with before the revolution and for new artists like Andy & Kouros, Shohreh, Siavash and many more. During the years she was in the US she constantly battled with breast cancer to the point that even after numerous surgeries the cancer had spread to all her body causing her to use a wheelchair. On May 16, 1989 after an eleven-year battle with breast cancer, and seventeen surgeries Leila Kasra died in Century City Hospital in Los Angeles. Kasra was married and had three sons. Her two last songs, "Ghesseyeh Man" and "Ghalbam Gerefteh" in which she describes her suffering from cancer, were sung by Hayedeh who also died a few months after Kasra. Some of the songs she had written were used in the soundtrack of the 2003 motion picture House of Sand and Fog. In 2009 the song "Kolbeh" written by Kasra was re-sung by Ebi, this time with and Kamran and Hooman.