Hamid Sakhizada

Hamid Sakhizada (b 1989, Afghanistan) is a musician, singer and former music teacher resident Harstad. 

Although classically trained, he is also an enthusiast for the dambura instrument and for traditional Afghan music. To highlight music from Hazara province, Sakhizada has participated in the Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest and came second in Afghan Star, the national version of The Voice. He had issued three albums before moving to Norway.

Sakhizada founded a school in Afghanistan to promote Hazara folk music, but conditions became intolerable when he received constant death threats and two of his pupils were kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban. He and his wife had to flee in 2015 and settled in Harstad, where Sakhizada is now one of two Cities of Refuge musicians.