Zahida Parveen was a Pakistani classical singer and playback singer. She was known as ''The Nightingale'' and ''The Queen of Kafi''.

Early life

Zahida Parveen was born in 1925 at

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

, Punjab during British India. Her parents died when she was very young so she was raised by one of her sisters, Peeran Ditti. She joined Patiala Gharana School to learn singing from sarangi player Baba Taj from Kapurthalla. Then she studied with Hussain Bakhsh Khan, a sarangi player from Amritsar.

Career

After partition, she moved to Pakistan and learned singing from Ashiq Hussain of Patiala Gharana in Lahore. Then she started singing at Radio Pakistan Lahore. In 1949 she worked as a playback singer and recorded a qawwali with Iqbal Bano and Munawar Sultana in the film ''Mundri''. The qawwali was composed by B.A. Chishti. At Radio Pakistan, she performed the songs "Kya Haal Sunawan Dil Da" and "Maindi Ajj Kal Akh Phurkaandi Aei", a composition of Khwaja Ghulam Farid with kafi style the songs were recorded for His Masters Voice (HMV) on gramophone both of the songs became a hit. Then she recorded many more Kafis in Urdu, Saraiki, Hindi, Punjabi and Sindhi for HMV, radio and stage. In 1940s she began to sing songs for films in Kheyal style and in classical vocalisation and she did playback singing by singing light classical music in different forms like in geets and ghazals. In 1957 she along with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan recorded a song ''Nain Se Nain Milae Rakhoni Ko'' for film ''

Waadah ''Waadah'' is a 1957 Pakistani musical romance film directed by W.Z. Ahmed. It is the first film that Ahmed made in the country after he migrated to Pakistan and he made two films in Pakistan. Sabiha Khanam and Santosh Kumar played the lead r ...

'' the song was composed by Rasheed Attre. In 1958 she worked in film ''Begunah'' and sanged a classical song ''Kaisi Raat Rageeli Aai'' in duet with Naseem Begum. The same year she was hired again by music composer Rashid Attre for film ''Jan-e-Bahar'' and was paired with Naseem Begum the duo sanged the song ''Ab Tou Ji Bhar Ke Khanjar Chalaenge Hum'' in raag darbari style. In 1964, she was honoured by '' All Pakistan Music Conference'' with a ''Gold Medal Award'' for her contribution to the music industry.

Personal life

Zahida was married and had a daughter named Shahida Parveen. She also wanted her daughter to be a singer so she trained her daughter in a similar style and Shahida became a student of Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan at the insistence of her mother.

Death

Zahida died at the age of 50 on May 15, 1975, in Lahore at Pakistan. She was lead to rest in Miani Sahib Graveyard.

Filmography

Film

Awards and recognition

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parveen, Zahida 1925 births 20th-century Pakistani women singers Singers from Lahore Punjabi-language singers Hindi-language singers Urdu-language singers 20th-century Pakistani singers 1975 deaths Radio personalities from Lahore Pakistani ghazal singers