Swedish-Iranian hip hop artist Nadia Tehran meets Sian Anderson – words Alexa Wang

Hip-hop artist Nadia Tehran has always been fighting, searching for her place in the world. Growing up as a second generation Swedish-Iranian gave her an identity that she now see as an important part of her and her music.

“I’ve always felt borderless. It’s not about how you look, it’s an energy. We’re all together in this feeling of belonging and not belonging”

As part of the Smirnoff’s We’re Open series she speaks to journalist, Radio 1Xtra DJ and presenter Sian Anderson about her life and inspirations. She believes that culture is an important way of people from very different backgrounds and world views getting to understand each other. Her music is brave and explores the realms of identity and politics. The video for her track Refugee, was shot in Iran which is absent the law on several levels not least that female performance is banned in the country.

She grew up a small town in Sweden as part of a migrant community. She was at first slightly uncomfortable with being seen as an inspiration to other herself but is growing into that role. Nadia is quite a new face to the music scene in the UK but as you can see from the video she has a lot of offer which is why she was picked out to be the face of the latest Smirnoff campaign.

Find out more on what happened when Radio 1 Extra’s Sian Anderson meets Nadia Tehran here.