The cover of Liraz Charhi’s new album ‘Zaan.’ Photo: Screenshot.

Israeli-Iranian actress and singer Liraz Charhi discussed in an interview published on Friday how her dual heritage and the frustration of not being able to visit her parent’s home country has influenced her music.

“I grew up in Israel and the complexity of my family who really struggled to be Israeli had brought me my double culture,” the 42-year-old, who stars in the Israeli thriller series “Tehran,” told WorldMusicCenter.org. “[And] the fact that I missed [the] Iran that I don’t know, and [the] Iran that I’m not able to visit, brought me a lot of rage and this rage gave me an open to tell my story via music, lyrics, instruments, and most important cooperate with my fellow Iranian musicians.”

Charhi’s parents were born in Iran and emigrated to Israel in 1970, a period before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in which the two countries had positive relations.

The singer, who was born in Israel, released her second, Farsi-language album “Zan” (meaning “women”) in November, which was made in secret with Iranian musicians, The Algemeiner previously covered. She told WorldMusicCenter.org that the experience of recording the electropop album with artists based in Iran was “was the most important journey of my life,” full of “fear, bravery, fragility and determined minds.”

The album has now taken the top spot on the World Music Charts Europe for January 2021 as well as the Transglobal World Music Chart for January.

Charhi was first exposed to Iranian music from interactions with the large Iranian community in Los Angeles, California. She said, “It literally happened to me in the streets of Los Angeles, where I found out lots of my Iranian family and explored every street in the Iranian neighborhoods. [I] especially explored Iranian music shops and fell in love immediately with the music I missed from the ’70s of Iran.”