Zhina Ardalan, aka XEEN, is a Tehran-born and Istanbul-based producer and multi-instrumentalist. She began her journey as a musician in 2016 as a vocalist and guitarist in the Tehran underground indie rock band The Finches. Zhina then began her solo project, XEEN, as a way to explore and experiment more freely with sounds. When the pandemic began in 2020, she came together with friends and fellow Iranian female musicians, Meshcut and Asal, to start the synthwave trio Stereotype. Their music mostly challenges the concepts of crackdown on freedom of expression in Iran, where women have been banned from singing and performing music. XEEN has written about the importance of using music to address social issues and recently contributed to a compilation to raise funds for Wellness Worldwide, a volunteer-based NGO providing healthcare & social support to vulnerable populations in Afghanistan.
XEEN
