Tehran, June 23, 2025, 9:00 PM IST – Iranian singer Aydin Nazmi delivered a chilling performance of The Cranberries’ 1994 protest song “Zombie” on a Tehran rooftop during Israeli airstrikes on June 21, 2025, describing it as “my most bitter performance for my city.” The video, set against the night skyline with anti-aircraft fire echoing, has gone viral, resonating globally for its raw emotion and timely message.
Nazmi’s cover, shared widely on X, captures the song’s anti-war essence, originally written by Dolores O’Riordan in response to the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington, England, that killed two children. Lyrics like “Another head hangs lowly / Child is slowly taken” mirror the horrors of conflict, now underscored by Tehran’s air raid sirens. X posts, including one from @LivinginTehran, praised Nazmi’s “heartbreaking” delivery, while @SajjadSafaei0 noted, “Israel is bombing people like him.”
The performance, amid U.S.-backed Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, reflects the song’s enduring relevance as a cry against civilian suffering. Nazmi told Repubblica, “The war that kills children is not ours,” echoing O’Riordan’s sentiment of innocent lives caught in violence. The video’s stark imagery—Nazmi singing as explosions light up the sky—has drawn comparisons to Zombie’s original Belfast-shot music video.
Sentiment on X is overwhelmingly supportive, with @miho_micio calling it a plea to “#StopTheWar.” Nazmi’s rendition joins Zombie’s legacy as an anthem for peace, previously dedicated to victims in Bosnia and Rwanda, and now a poignant symbol of resistance in Tehran.