islamabad - Fans and music lovers across the world on Sunday remembered the legendary music maestro, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on his 18th death anniversary.
Popular for his soothing melodies, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is known to introduce the classical and traditional Qawwali to the audience who used to love pop and rap music and got the title of “King of Qawwali”.
Nusrat, who was born on October 13, 1948 in Faisalabad, in his glorious career of music got international fame while he was most popular in Pakistan and India.
Introducing the devotional music of Sufis to the modern audience with the magic of his voice transcended all boundaries and he was considered as one of the great voices ever recorded.
He possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities, his fans tweeted on social networking.
He kept alive, the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family and took this tradition to the audience of international level. Khan started his first public performance at age of 16 and in his career, he performed across the world and released albums in Europe, India, Japan, US and Pakistan.
Khan’s first official performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan.
He sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha and Hindi.
His popularity started with his first major hit with the song Haq Ali Ali in which he performed in a traditional style accompanying with traditional instrumentation.
In 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in London which earned him admiration from international audience.
He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at London on 16 August 1997, aged 48.
The coming generations will keep on learning from the melodies of Khan as his work is an academy of mystical singing techniques, said an official of Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) while talking to APP.
Khan got the President of Pakistan’s Award for Pride of Performance for his contribution to Pakistani music, the UNESCO Music Prize.
He was awarded Grand Prix des Am riques at Montreal World Film Festival for exceptional contribution to the art of cinema, the Arts and Culture Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes.
After his death, he received the “Legends” award at the UK Asian Music Awards.