Mangal ( ps, منګل), born in Laghman is a prominent

Afghan singer The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethn ...

who started in the early 1970s. He and his ex-wife,

Naghma , background = solo_singer , image = Naghma 2010-3.jpgborder , caption = Naghma singing during the 2010 Nowruz celebration at Fairplex in Pomona, California , birth_name = Shaperei (''Fairy'') , birth_date ...

, were a popular duo during the 1970s and early 1990s. Mangal sings in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

and

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī � ...

. His music is popular in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Career

Mangal was born in Laghman, Afghanistan. As a young boy, he developed an interest in music. Mangal joined with a musician-turned-singer

( ps, نغمه), a Pashtun from

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

Province of Afghanistan, and eventually married her. Mangal has since divorced from Naghma, remarried and resides in California. With impending civil war, the couple left Afghanistan for Pakistan in 1992. There, they became very successful with an enthusiastic crowd of

Afghan exiles Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...

who were nostalgic for their native music. Their financial situation by this time had improved significantly. In the late 1990s, they left Pakistan and immigrated to the United States. After establishing contact with the Afghan community of northern California, the duo held a series of performances. Mangal and Naghma have four children, two sons and two daughters.BBC Persian: نغمه در کابل، کنسرت نوروزی دارد
(in Persian) Their divorce has also cast a doubt as to whether this former pair can reconcile at least on the professional level. While Mangal performs solo in private events and television programs, Mangal is continuing his career as a professional artist. He is known to be very patriotic of

Afghan culture The culture of Afghanistan has persisted for over three millennia, tracing record to at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire in 500 BCE, and encompasses the cultural diversity of the nation. Afghanistan's culture is historically strongly ...

and has dedicated many songs to Afghanistan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangal 20th-century Afghan male singers Living people Afghan expatriate musicians in Pakistan Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Afghan male singers