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SIDEBAR

Pakistan's Amazing Pop Talent

“Yeh Hum Naheen” is more than a song—it’s a musical movement with some incredible talent. Here are the profiles of some of the performers.

HADIQA KIANI

Hadiqa Kiani, the quintessential pop diva, walks tall with accessibility and innovativeness, two nearly extinct traits in pop culture today. With undiminished energy, she has high aims, huge achievements and above all poise to do something new every time she makes an album.

Hadiqa’s own joyful noise has undoubtedly fueled numerous high-octane singers of her gender to follow in her footsteps, thereby catapulting the artist to an almost role model status. Hadiqa has music with a spark, and her multidirectional uncliched tunes run an entire gamut of thought-provoking ideas and issues. Home page: www.hadiqakiani.net.

ALI HAIDER

Ali Haider is a Pakistani singer and actor. He has had numerous hits in the early 90s, such as “Purani Jeans.” He also had a big hit later that decade with “Chand Sa Mukhra.” Besides singing, he has acted in numerous TV serials on PTV.

Among the successful dramas was Chand Sa Mukhra, which used his hit song as the theme music. He also sang the theme music for the serial Chandni Raatein. He has a large fan following in Pakistan and India and with South Asian expatriates around the world. Home page: www.alihaider.net.

SHAFQAT AMANAT ALI

Shafqat Amanat Ali is the son of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, making him part of the nine-generation-old Patiala gharana [a musical style]. He has been a student of Hindustani classical music since age 4, his grandmother being his first teacher. His main influences in music come from his father and his uncle Ustad Fateh Ali Khan Sahab, as well as Roshanara Begum, to name a few. Shafqat Amanat Ali is also the lead vocalist of a Pakistani pop band known as Fuzon. He belongs to the Patiala gharana school of classical music. The gharana is famous for its concentration on intricate taan-patterns and sargams. With his family, he has been part of the Pakistani classical musical tradition for eight generations now.

HAROON

Haroon is a Pakistani pop star, composer, musician, record producer, recording engineer and live performer. He has sold nearly three million CDs and tapes worldwide, and the audience at his shows often numbers in the tens of thousands.

Haroon is known for the uniqueness in his albums, his tendency to mix genres and experiment with amalgams of cultures. His songs are most frequently performed in Urdu, Punjabi and English, but he has shown some more variety, for example, in his hit song, “Mahbooba,” to which he adds some Arabic lyrics. Home page: www.haroononline.com.

ALI ZAFAR

Ali Zafar made his debut as a musician with the album “Huqa Pani,” released in Pakistan in 2003 and worldwide in 2005. The album was an instant hit, selling over five million copies worldwide and winning several major awards and nominations. It also put Ali into the league of the most popular artists ever to have come out of Pakistan, with a massive fan following locally and internationally.

Ali’s second album, “Masty,” has just been released to both critical and commercial acclaim and has established him as one of Pakistan’s leading vocalists. Home page: www.alizafar.net.

STRINGS

Strings is a Pakistani pop band comprising two members, Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia. Strings started with four college students (Bilal, Faisal and two friends) in 1990, when they came out with a self-titled album.

After “Strings 2” in 1992, the band broke up. Eight years later, Bilal and Faisal reformed the group, coming out with their album “Duur” and then “Dhaani,” both proving national and international hits. Home page: www.stringsonline.net.

Credit: Yeh Hum Naheen Foundation. For more information, please visit www.yehhumnaheen.org.

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From the January/February 2008 issue of Serviam.