Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

@Ghazal Singers, Facts and Family

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani musician and singer, counted amongst the greatest voices ever recorded

Oct 13, 1948

PakistaniSingersGhazal SingersLibra Celebrities
Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: October 13, 1948
  • Died on: August 16, 1997
  • Nationality: Pakistani
  • Famous: Ghazal Singers, Pakistani Men, Qawwal, Singers, Ghazal Singers
  • Spouses: Naheed Nusrat
  • Siblings: Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan
  • Known as: Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan born at

Faisalabad

Unsplash
Birth Place

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan married his first cousin, Naheed, the daughter of his uncle, Salamat Ali Khan in 1979. They had one daughter, Nida.

Unsplash
Personal Life

He fell ill with kidney and liver failure in 1997 while in London. He suffered a fatal heart attack and died on 16 August 1997. He was 48 years old. Khan's musical legacy is now carried forward by his nephew, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Unsplash
Personal Life

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born on 13 October 1948 in Hazara, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. His Punjabi Muslim family had migrated to Pakistan from their native city of Jalandhar in East Punjab, British India, after the partition of India in 1947.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

His father Fateh Ali Khan was a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and qawwal. Nusrat had four elder sisters and one younger brother. He hailed from a family with a rich legacy of qawwali music. Two of his uncles, Ustad Mubarik Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, were also famous qawwals.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

Initially his father wanted Nusrat to become a doctor or an engineer as he felt that qawwals had low social status. Nonetheless, Nusrat received musical training in tabla and vocals.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

His father died in 1964 when Nusrat was 16 years old. Ten days after his death, Nusrat had a dream in which his father appeared and instructed him to sing. The boy gave his first public performance at his father's funeral ceremony 40 days later.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan joined his uncles in giving performances and blossomed into a talented singer of qawwali. Initially he drew on his uncles’ musical style, and as he matured as a performer, he added his own creative touches to his music and developed his unique, distinguishing style of singing qawwali.

Unsplash
Career

His uncle Mubarak Ali Khan died in 1971, and Nusrat Khan became the official leader of the family Qawwali party which now became known as “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party”.

Unsplash
Career

As the leader of the family party, he gave his first performance at a studio recording broadcast known as ‘Jashn-e-Baharan’ which was a part of an annual music festival organized by Radio Pakistan. There he sang in many languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and Hindi.

Unsplash
Career

Soon he gained much fame and established himself throughput Pakistan as one of the best known contemporary qawwals of his era. Blessed with a powerful voice and high stamina, he could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. He was accompanied by tabla, harmoniums, and backing vocals in concerts.

Unsplash
Career

It was not long before his fame spread beyond Pakistan and Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in London in 1985. He then began touring and performing widely, travelling to Paris in 1985 and 1988, and visiting Japan in 1987 at the invitation of the Japan Foundation. In 1989, he performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.

Unsplash
Career

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was one of the first artists to popularize qawwali to Western audiences. He possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities, and his powerful, intoxicating voice mesmerized audiences not just in his native Pakistan, but all over the world. Some of his most popular albums are ‘Mustt Mustt’, ‘The Day, The Night, The Dawn, The Dusk’, ‘Night Song’, and ‘Sangam’.

Unsplash
Major Works