Viguen was born into an Iranian-Armenian family of eight children in the western Iranian city of Hamadan. His father died of complications related to pneumonia when Viguen was only eight years old.He was raised by his older brother, Zaven and his mother after moving away from the family property because of a disagreement with her father. Karo Derderian, Viguen's older brother was a well known Iranian poet and wrote the lyrics for Viguen's signature song, "Lala'ee" (Lullaby). During World War II, the family moved to the northern city of Tabriz where local Azerbaijani nationalists declared the area a separatist republic, with the help of the occupying Soviet forces. This is where Viguen bought his first guitar from a Russian soldier and discovered his affinity for American, Italian and Spanish music and adopted many of those melodies for his songs with Persian lyrics that became some of Iran's most popular music to date.