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This article contains the list of past and present Qawwali singers that are based in Pakistan & India. Following are the most popular Pakistani Qawwali singers of all times.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music. Often called the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", he is considered by The New York Times to be the greatest qawwali singer of his generation. He was described as the fourth greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016. He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Khan is widely credited with introducing qawwali music to international audiences. He was also a master in Hindustani classical music.
The Music of Pakistan includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and modern-day Western popular music influences. With these multiple influences, a distinctive Pakistani music has emerged.
Qawwali is a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing originating in South Asia. Originally performed at Sufi shrines or dargahs throughout South Asia, it is famous throughout Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and has also gained mainstream popularity and an international audience as of the late 20th century.
The Sabri Brothers were a musical band from Pakistan who were performers of Sufi qawwali music and were closely connected to the Chishti Order. They are considered one of the greatest Sufi qawwali singers of all times. The Sabri Brothers were led by Ghulam Farid Sabri and his brother Maqbool Ahmed Sabri. They are often referred to as Shahenshah-e-Qawwali and are also known as the roving ambassadors of Pakistan. The band was initially founded by Maqbool Ahmed Sabri at the age of 11 years and was known as Bacha Qawwal Party. His elder brother Ghulam Farid Sabri joined after insistence from their father. He became the leader of the group and the band soon became known as the Sabri Brothers. They were the first-ever qawwali artists to perform qawwali in the United States and other Western countries; they were also the first-ever Asian artists to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1975.
Allah Hoo is a traditional Sufi chant (dhikr) consisting of the word for God run together three times, followed by Truth (haqq): Allāhu Allāhu Allāhu Haqq, itself repeated three times over. According to Sufi tradition, this formula was introduced by Abu Bakr as he initiated the Naqshbandi tradition. Other Dhikrs consist of simple Allāhu Allāhu run together 400 or 600 times.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a Pakistani singer, primarily Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Khan is one of the most popular and highest paid singers in Pakistan. He is the nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, son of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan and grandson of Qawwali singer Fateh Ali Khan. In addition to Qawwali, he also performs ghazals and other light music. He is also well-known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema and the Pakistan film industry.
Aziz Mian Qawwal was a Pakistani traditional qawwal famous for singing ghazals in his own style of qawwali and is considered one of the greatest qawwals in South Asia. He holds the record for singing the longest commercially released qawwali, Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga, which runs slightly over 150 minutes and. Aziz is known by sobriquets — "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", "Fauji Qawwal"(Military Singer) since his early performances were often in army barracks, and "the Nietzschean qawwal".
Fateh Ali Khan Jullundhri Qawwal was a classical singer and a qawwali musician in the 1940s and 1950s.
Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani musician, who played the harmonium in Qawwali music. He was also a member of a well-known family of Qawwali musicians, the Qawwal Bacchon gharana, he was the younger brother of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the son of Fateh Ali Khan, the nephew of Mubarak Ali Khan, and the father of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
Badar Miandad Khan, also known as Badar Ali Khan, was a Pakistani qawwali singer. He released several albums in Pakistan. Several albums were also released under UK and Indian labels.
Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali is a Pakistani Qawwali group, headed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's nephews, Rizwan and Muazzam. They have performed at several editions of WOMAD since 1998, and have recorded several albums.
Shahid Ali Khan is a Canada based singer in the Qawwali genre, a musical tradition that dates back over 700 years.
Urban Qawwali (Urban Quwalli) is a genre of music that fuses Sufi devotional music popular from South Asia mixed with Urban beats from the west.
Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni, is a Ghazal written and composed by Amir Khusro, a 14th-century Sufi mystic, in popular Western Indian language Braj Bhasha. Due to the resonance of its melody and mystical lyrics, it is frequently heard in Qawwali concerts across Indian Subcontinent. Chaapp Tilak Sab Chheeni is considered as Amir Khusru‘s most known Kalam which is basically a penned version of his imagination of devotion and the joy of oneness with the eternal one. This poetry is an epic example where an inherent middle eastern art form gets entangled with the Indic philology, custom and art a unique twist between the two artforms. This kind of devotion is rarely seen in Islamic ghazals and qawwalis preceding it. This poetry is a great example of the role both cultures played to create this Ghazal and Qawwali which has a unique essence combining both Indic and Islamic culture which inherently created a new unique art form which contributed to the early beginnings of the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb culture to be developed.
Sher Miandad Khan, is a Pakistani qawwal and a folk singer.
Mera Piya Ghar Aaya is a Punjabi Sufi poem written by noted 18th-century Sufi saint and poet Baba Bulleh Shah. He composed this poem at the return of his spiritual guide Shah Inayat Qadiri. The song is part of most of the Qawwali performances. It is one of the best known songs of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and part of his album, Qawwali: The Essential Collection.
Amjad Farid (Fareed) Sabri was a Pakistani qawwal, naat khawan and a proponent of the Sufi Muslim tradition. Son of Ghulam Farid Sabri and nephew of Maqbool Ahmed Sabri of the Sabri Brothers, he emerged as one of South Asia's most prominent qawwali singers, often reciting poems written by his father and uncle. The TTP Hakimullah Mehsud group has claimed responsibility for Sabri's death, saying that they carried out the assassination "for blasphemy."