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.
The ghazal is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. Ghazals often deal with topics of spiritual and romantic love and may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation from the beloved and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.
A tawaif was a highly successful singer‚ dancer‚ and poet who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. Many tawaifs were forced to go into prostitution due to a lack of opportunities by the time of the British Raj.
Fiji is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. Though geographically Melanesian, the music of Fiji is more Polynesian in character. Nevertheless, Fijian folk styles are distinct in their fusion of Polynesian and Melanesian traditions. Folk music is dominated by vocal church music, as well as dances characterized by rich and dull harmony and complex percussion made from slit drums or natural materials, such as drums.
Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, also known as Begum Akhtar, was an Indian singer and actress. Dubbed "Mallika-e-Ghazal", she is regarded as one of the greatest singers of ghazal, dadra, and thumri genres of Hindustani classical music.
Stan Harrison is an American saxophonist who is also accomplished in playing other woodwind instruments, namely the French horn, flute and clarinet. He has also written music for television. Harrison released his first solo album The Ties That Blind in 2000 on his own record label. In 2007 he released The Optimist, an album which was produced by G TOM MAC, on the EdgeArtists record label.
Jan Nisar Akhtar was an Indian poet of Urdu ghazals and nazms, and a part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, who was also a lyricist for Bollywood.
Najma Akbar Ali Heptulla is an Indian politician. She was the Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia from 2017 to 2023, until Mufaddal Saifuddin was elected as new Chancellor on 14 March 2023. She was a six time member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, between 1980 and 2016, and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for sixteen years when she was a member of Congress. Later she was nominated vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2012, and was a minister from 2014-2016 as a member of BJP in Narendra Modi's first government. From 2016 to 2021, she served as the 16th Governor of Manipur.
The filmi-ghazal is a genre of filmi music based on ghazal poetry in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), used in Indian films, especially the music of Bollywood. The filmi-ghazals retain the couplet format and rhyme scheme similar to that in ghazals. However, instead of vocal or instrumental passages as interludes, the filmi-ghazal usually uses precomposed musical pieces.
Bazaar (transl. Market) is a 1982 Indian drama film directed by Sagar Sarhadi and starring Naseeruddin Shah, Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil and Supriya Pathak. The film set in Hyderabad, India, highlights the issue of bride buying in India, through the tragedy of a young girl being sold by needy parents to affluent expatriate Indians in the Gulf.
Penaz Masani is an Indian ghazal singer who started singing in 1981 and has made over 20 albums.
Manjari is an Indian playback singer and Hindustani vocalist. Her first stage performance was with Shiva, the Kolkata - based rock band, when she was in class eight.
Tina Sani is a Pakistani female singer famous for her classical and semi-classical Urdu Ghazals.
Naheed Akhtar is a Pakistani playback singer. She is tagged as the "Nightingale of Pakistan". She was the top Lollywood playback singer during the second half of the 1970s and 80s. She won 3 Nigar Awards and a Pride of Performance in 2007.
Kavita Seth is an Indian singer, who is most known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema, as well as a performer of Ghazals and Sufi music, and leads a Sufi musical group, Karwaan Group. She is currently based in Mumbai, India.
Rita Ganguly is an exponent in the Indian classical arts. An accomplished dancer, musician and vocalist, she was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2000 and with the Padma Shri in 2003. She is the mother of actress Meghna Kothari and the younger sister of the famous Ravindra Sangeet singer Gita Ghatak.
Shanti Hiranand was an Indian vocalist, classical musician and writer, known for her proficiency as a ghazal singer. She was the author of the book Begum Akhtar: The Story of My Ammi, a biographical work on Begum Akhtar, a renowned Ghazal singer.
Najma Akhtar is an Indian academic and academic administrator. Since 12 April 2019, she has been the Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia, an Indian university and served their till 12 November 2023. She is also the first woman to hold the post in JMI.
Qareeb is an album by the British Indian singer Najma, released in 1987. It was issued in England by Triple Earth Records before being picked up for an American release by Shanachie Records. Songs from the album appear in the Stephen Frears film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.
