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.
Abida Parveen is a Pakistani singer, composer, and musician of Sufi music. She is also a painter and an entrepreneur. Parveen is one of the highest- paid singers in Pakistan. Her singing and music have earned her many accolades, and she has been dubbed the 'Queen of Sufi music'.
Pakistan’s tradition of poetry includes Urdu poetry, English poetry, Sindhi poetry, Pashto poetry, Punjabi poetry, Saraiki poetry, Baluchi poetry, and Kashmiri poetry. Sufi poetry has a strong tradition in Pakistan and the poetry of popular Sufi poets is often recited and sung.
Kafi is a classical form of Sufi music in the Sindhi and Punjabi languages that originated from the Sindh and Punjab regions of South Asia. Some well-known Kafi poets are Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. This poetry style has also lent itself to the Kafi genre of singing, popular throughout South Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Over the years, both Kafi poetry and its rendition have experienced rapid growth phases as various poets and vocalists added their own influences to the form, creating a rich and varied poetic form, yet through it all it remained centered on the dialogue between the Soul and the Creator, symbolized by the murid (disciple) and his Murshid (Master), and often by lover and his Beloved.
Sohni Mahiwal or Suhni Mehar is one of the seven popular tragic romances of Sindh. The other six are Umar Marvi, Momal Rano, Sassui Punnhun, Lilan Chanesar, Sorath Rai Diyach, and Noori Jam Tamachi. In Punjab, it is four of the most popular romances. The other three are Heer Ranjha, Sassui Punnhun and Mirza Sahiban.
Shah Hussain, also known as Madhoo Lal Hussain, was a 16th-century Punjabi Sufi poet who is regarded as a pioneer of the Kafi form of Punjabi poetry. He lived during the ruling periods of Mughal emperors Akbar and his son Jahangir.
Sindhi folk music is traditional folk music and singing from Sindh, is sung and is generally performed of 5 genres that originated in Sindh, the first genre "Bait" styles. The Bait style is vocal music in Sanhoon or Graham. Second style "Waee" instrumental music is performed in a variety of ways using a string instrument. Waee, also known as Kafi, other folk genres of Sindhi music are Lada/Sehra/Geech, Dhammal, Dohiraa, Bhagat, Kalaam, Classical, Molud, Osira/Paar etc. Today other modern genres are also being introduced.
Pathanay Khan or Pathane Khan was a legendary Saraiki folk singer from Pakistan. He mostly sang Kafis or Ghazals, usually drawing 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 the Thal Desert, several miles from Kot Addu, (Punjab).
Inayat Hussain Bhatti (Urdu: عِنایَت حُسَین بھٹّی)(12 January 1928 – 31 May 1999) was a Pakistani film playback singer, film actor, producer, director, script writer, social worker, columnist, religious scholar and an active advocate of the development of the Punjabi language and literature.
Ustad Muhammad Juman was a Sindhi musician and classical singer from Pakistan, whose impact on Sindhi music is still pervasive.
Mai Bhagi was a Sindhi folk musician, born Bhag Bhari in Mithi in Thar, Sindh. Mai Bhagi grew up in a village in the Thar Desert. Her father was Wanhyun Fakir and her mother was Khadija Maganhar. Both her parents were known singers in their region at that time.
Imdad Hussaini was a Pakistani Sindhi poet and an Urdu language writer.
Sanam Marvi is a Pakistani folk and sufi singer. She sings in Sindhi, Punjabi, and Balochi languages.
Dama Dam Mast Qalandar is a spiritual Sufi qawwali written in the honour of the most revered Sufi saint of Sindh, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (1177–1274) of Sehwan Sharif. The origins of the poem is unknown, since no recordings or written documents exist mentioning it prior to the 1950s. However, legends around the Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan suggest that the original poem was initially written by the 13th-century Sufi poet Amir Khusrow, then further modified by Bulleh Shah in the 18th century. The poem includes a reference to the town of Sehwan, and the word "Lal" can refer to Lal Shahbaz Qalandar as a young man, his legendary ruby glow, or his red dress. Bulleh Shah gave an entirely different color to the qawwali, adding verses in praises of Shahbaz Qalandar and giving it a large tint of Sindhi culture. It also venerates Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad.
Surriya Khanum, also spelled as Suraiya Khanum, is a veteran Pakistani folk and classical singer from the Punjab. She is also known for her soulful performances and singing Sufi music on Pakistan Television and other TV channels.
Latif Award is given by Department of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, government of Sindh to the best researchers and singers of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai who made extraordinary work in Arts and Research field related with mystic poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sindhi language and Sindhi music. This award is a highest cultural decoration given by Government of Sindh. The award is given on Urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai each year. Latif Award is a unique golden model of Tamboro, a stringed music instrument, which is said to be invented by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai himself.
Zahida Parveen was a Pakistani classical singer and playback singer. She was known as The Nightingale and The Queen of Kafi.
