With her bling, army fatigues and bright red hair, Helly Luv is challenging ISIS with her music. But where did this pop diva come from and how did she get so popular?
Born in Urminia, Iran, as Hellen Abdulla to Kurdish parents, Luv fled with her family as refugees to Turkey during the Persian Gulf War and was forced to beg on the street for survival. After some time, the family managed to escape to Finland where Luv grew up.
Growing up in Finland, she showed a passion for dance and performance, receiving a scholarship to the best dance school in the country. She also signed a five-year contract with Nike Women. However, at 18, she realised that she needed to move again to pursue her dreams further.
Saving all her money, she traveled to Los Angeles, California, and tried to break into the American music industry. She quickly found the American dream wasn't as easily obtainable as she had thought, as she struggled to eat and pay rent. Just as she was about to give up on her dreams, a producer contacted her through her MySpace page.
Calling him, she auditioned over the phone and he soon flew her out to New York. Everything took off from that moment and she made international news in 2013 with the release of her first music video "Risk It All." As soon as the video went viral, she received death threats from Islamists who saw the video as a challenge to their influence.
"There were death threats from many Islamic groups ... it was a really hard time for me," Luv told Reuters last year. "[But] my whole message is that, Kurdish people, we need to risk everything for our dreams and fight for our country."
Undeterred, Luv decided to highlight her Kurdish heritage even further with the more recent release of "Revolution," a direct challenge to the encroachment of ISIS into Kurdish territory.
"I want to show the world who the peshmerga forces are, and who [ISIS] is," Luv said, according to Your Middle East .
We're interested to see what this Kurdish diva does next. Having already progressed successfully from refugee to international celebrity, we're sure she will go far.