Kazim al-Sahir removes song from new album after copyright concern

Iraqi singer Kazim al-Sahir has pulled the track "Al-Hulwain" from his new album "Adsiz" after his team identified that its lyrics had been recorded in 1979 by Iraqi artist Hamid Mansour under the title "Wash Kalu Al-Hulwain." The lyrics are credited to poet Bashir al-Aabudi. The team removed the new recording from the album to pre-empt a potential copyright dispute, after realizing that al-Sahir had recorded and included the song without having identified Mansour's earlier version. "Adsiz" contains 18 tracks featuring collaborations with poets including Bashir al-Aabudi, Karim al-Iraqi and Lamia Abbas Amara. "Al-Hulwain" was available on digital platforms for roughly two days before its removal, though copies remain in circulation on some accounts. The episode has drawn attention to the unclear copyright status of many Iraqi songs from the 1970s and 1980s that have not been catalogued in comprehensive digital databases.