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............