Farida Khanum

Farida Khanum was born in 1929 in Kolkata and is considered as one of the greatest Ghazal singer of all time. She is one of the five children of her parents. Her sister is also another popular singer, Mukhtar Begum. Farida lived in Amritsar until she was 18 and then moved to Lahore, Pakistan along with her whole family after partition. In Pakistan, Farida started taking singing classes, and she learnt Thumri, Khayal and Dadra from Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan.

Upon learning singing, Farida started appearing in many singing competitions at the young age of 20 and she gained massive popularity because at such a younger age she was singing like a seasoned mature singer. Farida made her first-ever concert appearance at the age of 21. Her amazing performances did not go unnoticed as she was later selected to be the musical gues on Radio Pakistan.

She would often perform live on the radio and became a part of the radio culture in all of Pakistan and bordering states of India where the frequency reached. As slowly Fardia was mesmerizing everyone with her singing skills, her musical abilities led her to the gates of Pakistani president’s offices, as the then-president Aybu Khan invited her for a recital in the in the1960s.

This moment would be the defining moment of her career, as she became perhaps the biggest artist in Pakistan at that moment. Her musical genius was now getting praises from all around the world. In 1970, Farida was awarded the Pride of Performance by the President of Pakistan. In 1978, Farida started putting out compilation and live albums. She released ‘Farida Khanum in Concert’ in 1978, and the first track on the album was ‘Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo’. The track that won the hearts of everyone.

To this day, this remains the biggest and most popular song by Farida. She would go on to release four other compilation albums, all very successful. In 1993 she also released her first studio album called ‘Farida Khanum: Meri Pasand’. The sequel to this album was released a few months later. Farida’s impressive rise in popularity also led to her being invited to Kabul, Afghanistan, where she collaborated with local Afghani singers. In 2005, Farida was awarded the Hafiz Ali Khan award by India.

She was also conferred the title of Malika-E-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazal) in 2007 by TIME India magazine.