Ghulam Ali
Ghulam Ali is a Pakistani ghazal singer of the Patiala gharana. He is not to be confused with the Indian singer Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (of whom he was a disciple) or Chhote Ghulam Ali, who is another Pakistani singer in the Qual Bachon Gharana. Early life and background Ali was born in the village [...]
Iqbal Bano
Iqbal Bano was a highly acclaimed female Ghazal singer from Pakistan. She was best known for her semi-classical Urdu ghazal songs and classical thumris, but also sang easy-listening numbers in 1950s films Early life Iqbal Bano was born in Delhi, British India. From a young age, she developed a love for music. It was a [...]
Farida Khanum
Farida Khanum (born 1935) is a Pakistani Ghazal singer from Punjab. The Times of India has called her “Malika-e-Ghazal” (Queen of Ghazal). In 2005, she was awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour by President Pervez Musharraf. Early life Born in (1935) in Calcutta and raised in Amritsar. Her sister is Mukhtar Begum. She started [...]
Nayyara Noor
Nayyara Noor is a Pakistani singer considered one of the South Asia’s foremost exponents in the Ghazal genre. Biography Nayyara Noor was born in 1950 in Assam. Her family was a merchant class hailing from Amritsar who had settled in Guwahati in Assam State in the North-Eastern India. Her father was an active member of [...]
Music Families
Music Families Since early eighteenth century, a significant development in classical gayeki took the form of evolution of gharanas or extended music families, each having its own style or interpretation of raags and their relative emphasis on the tone (sur), level of voice, beat (taal) and improvisations. Nowadays the expression gharanas is applied only to [...]
Tahira Syed
Tahira Syed is a Ghazal and folk singer in Pakistan. She is the daughter of vocalist Begum Malika Pukhraj, and was the former wife of Naeem Bokhari. Music career Syed received her initial training in music from Ustad Akhtar Hussain. She first appeared on air in 1968–69 on Radio Pakistan, and her popularity increased in [...]
Ustad Amanat Ali Khan
Ustad Amanat Ali Khan (1932–1974) was a Pakistani classical/ghazal singer, from the Patiala gharana. He was honoured with the ‘Pride of Performance’ award by the government of Pakistan. He stands with great singing icons like Mehdi Hassan and Ahmed Rushdi. Early life and background Amanat Ali Khan was born in Sham Chaurasi, Hoshiarpur, Punjab to [...]
Pathanay Khan
Pathanay Khan (real name: Ghulam Muhammad; 1926 – 2000) was a great folk singer from Pakistan. His singing style was mostly Kafi or Ghazal, and were largely based on the Sufi poetry of Khwaja Ghulam Farid and Shah Hussain. He was born in 1926 in the village Basti Tambu Wali, situated in the heart of [...]
International Mystic Music Sufi Festival in Karachi
I had heard of Doctors without Borders and Reporters without Borders, but when I saw a headline in a Pakistani newspaper about Mystics without Borders, it was a first for me and certainly caught my attention. It turns out a fascinating festival by the name of the “International Mystic Music Sufi Festival” is currently being [...]
Classical Music
Classical Music is a North Indian classical music tradition that has been evolving from the 12th centuries AD onwards, in what is now northern India and Pakistan, and also Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan. The tradition was born out of a cultural synthesis from several musical streams: the vedic chant tradition dating back to approx. one [...]
