Asa Singh Mastana (1926–1999) was a Punjabi musician and singer best known for lending his voice to the hit

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film ''Heer'', and singing ''

jugni Jugni is an age-old narrative device used in Punjabi folk music. It is the traditional music of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Jugni is sung at Punjabi weddings in India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Australia and UK. In folk music, i ...

'' and ''Heer''-genre of folk songs, which recount the tales of

Heer Ranjha ''Heer Ranjha'' (or ''Heer and Ranjha'') ( pnb, , ਹੀਰ ਰਾਂਝਾ ) is one of several popular tragic romances of Punjab, other important ones being "Sohni Mahiwal", "Mirza Sahiban" and " Sassi Punnhun". There are several poetic na ...

by poet Waris Shah. He became popular in the 1940s, by the mid-1960s, when state-run

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

started promoting folk musicians, this made him, along with

Surinder Kaur Surinder Kaur (25 November 1929 – 14 June 2006) was an Indian singer and songwriter. While she mainly sang Punjabi folk songs, where she is credited for pioneering and popularising the genre, Kaur also recorded songs as a playback singer fo ...

and

Kuldeep Manak Kuldeep Manak, also spelled as Kuldip Manak (born Latif Mohammed Khan; 15 November 1951 – 30 November 2011), was an Indian singer best known for singing a rare genre of Punjabi music, ''kali'', also known by its plural form ''kalian'' or kali ...

singers of cult status. His well-known songs, among others "Balle Ni Panjaab Diye Sher Bachiye", "Doli Charhdeyan Marian Heer Cheekaan" and "Kali Teri Gut", have served as templates for later Punjabi musicians His great work also expands to singing sad songs like "Jadon Meri Arthi Utha Ke Chalan Ge". He was mostly paired with

or Prakash Kaur for singing many old folk songs of Punjab. In 1985, he was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

Discography

* Best of Asa Singh Mastana and Surinder Kaur * Hits of Asa Singh Mastana & Pushpa Hans - Recorded Live in the UK (1980) * Heer * Mastana Masti Wich * "Mutiare Jana Door Pya" (1970) * Sarke Sarke Jandiye Mutiare Ni

References

External links

*
Asa Singh Mastana Albums
1927 births 1999 deaths Indian male folk singers Punjabi-language singers Singers from Punjab, India Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian male singers {{India-singer-stub