Mehdi Hassan (King of Ghazal)

Mehdi Hassan Khan, one of the greatest name in the world of music and Ghazal singing, he was born in July 18, 1927 in Luna, Rajasthan, India.
He is former playback singer for Lollywood and the greatest Ghazal singer, he achieved number of awards and honors like Tamgha-e-Imtiaz , Pride of performance and Hilal-e-Imtiaz by Government of Pakistan and Gorkha Dakshina Bahu by Government of Nepal on his best way of singing.


The title he achieved by the world of music, the title that no body ever get, the honorable Pakistani ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan got that title on behalf of his great work for ghazal singing and the unique style that he used which makes him the best among all. Mehdi Hassan was awarded with the title of
Shahnshah-e-Ghazal which means King of Ghazal.

Career : 


Mehdi Hassan was born in the family of musicians, he had his music grooming by his father
Ustad Azeem Khan and on of his uncle Ustad Ismail Khan and both were famous dhropad singers.
Mehdi Hassan's early life was full of hurdles and problems, after partition his family migrated to Pakistan and that time they were suffering with severe financial problems, to cover such issues he started working in bicycle workshop and later he became car diesel tractor mechanic, along with his work he kept up his music practice on daily routine because music was his only passion.

Later he got chance to sing for Radio Pakistan in 1957 and he started singing with Thumri, at that time there were number of ghazal and thumri singer like Begum Akhtar, Ustad Barkat Ali khan so competition was quiet tough for him.

Later in early 1980's he started singing as a playback singer for Pakistani films.











Mehdi Hassan visited almost everywhere in the world and showed the people his magic in music, he's been awarded with number of titles by different governments. He launched his number of albums, and he had sung number of duets with many of the singers from the world.

Here we can see Mehdi Hassan with the Indian Queen of music Lata Mangeshkar.

 Mehdi Hassan with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhoslay.

Mehdi Hassan with one of the best Bollywood hero Salman Khan.












Here we have few of his ghazals for Lollywood and his own singles.

Ab k hum bichre to shaid ...... 

Begum Akhtar

Early Life:

Begum Akhtar one of the well known Ghazal, Dadras and Thumri singer, her real name is Akhtarbai Faizabadi and she was born in  October 7, 1914 in Uttar Pradesh. 

She traveled to Calcutta with her mother to learn some good and pure classical singing and music, her teachers were the great names of subcontinent like Mohammad Khan, Abdul Waheed Khan of Lahore, but she selected Ustad Jhande Khan as her music Guru.

Career:

Begum Akhtar started her music career at the age of 15, a very young girl got a marvelous talent that every platform was open for her, her soft voice became the perfect choice of music industry that lead Begum to get her self more popular. She released with her first album on Gramophone, that time number of gramophones got her name's label that includes her ghazals, dadras and thumris.

Awards:

Begum Akhtar with nightingale and soothing voice got the glimpse of every classical music lover, she became the best among all and very soon she reached to the level where every artist wanted to be, popularity lead her to highest peak and soon she was awarded with the title of
''Malika-e-Ghazal'' means ''Queen of Ghazal''.

Death:

Begum akhtar died in Ahmedabad where she went for a concert organised by one of her friend, during concert she felt that her voice is getting down and it has no such quality that it had, she tried hard to get back to the soothing and strong voice but failed to do so, in the end she felt ill and rushed to hospital for quick checkup.

She died on ctober 30, 1974 and at that time Nilam Gamadia her friend was there and she died in his arms. Her concert in Ahmedabad became ''Last Concert of Akhtar's Life''.

Specialty of her singing:

Having a strong command in Surs and Taals she actually understood the way of singing. She has got talent to help listeners understand that what the poet is trying to say, what feelings the poet had at the time of writing, her way of singing and getting drowned into poet's lyrics she gave a glamorous touch of her composition, that is how she got so much praise and likeness by the listeners and the song writers.

I have uploaded few of her ghazals as an test tracks. Just go for it.

here you can listen to her best ghazals with very heart touching lyrics, music and composition.

Lyrics:

Mere Humnafas....

Lyrics:
Taskeen ko hum na rooein........


taskeen ko hum na roein jo zooq-e-nazar miley
khooran-e-khuld mein teri sorat agar milay

My point of view about Begum Akhtar :

Everyone do listen to Begum Akhtar's ghazals and thumri's, I bet that you will all drown into her soothing voice and strong lyrics, but before that you have to have a good command in pure Urdu adab.....

cheers

Stay blessed

and do comment.

thank you all............