KARACHI: The 13th death anniversary of pop Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan is being observed today across the country.
The pop icon Nazia Hassan died of lung cancer at the age of 35 on August 13, 2000. Her song “Aap Jaisa Koi” from the Indian film Qurbani (1980) made her a legend and pop icon in Pakistan and all of South Asia in the 1980s, where she is admired and loved even today, years after her death.
Her debut album Disco Deewane (1981) also charted in fourteen countries worldwide and became the best-selling Asian pop record up until that time.
Nazia Hassan, along with her brother Zohaib Hassan, went on to sell over 60 million records worldwide.
Nazia was the first Pakistani to win a Filmfare Award and remains the youngest winner of a Filmfare Award in the category of Best Female Playback Singer to date when she was 15. Hassan is a recipient for the Pride of Performance, Double Platinum Award and Golden Discs Awards.
In 2007, Ahmad Haseeb created a documentary A Music Fairy in a tribute to Nazia Hassan which was screened at Kara Film Festival and University of Ankara.
Nazia began singing during the late 1970s, when she appeared on several television shows on PTV as a child artist. Her professional career started at the age of fifteen when she provided the lead vocals for the song Aap Jaisa Koi from the 1980 film Qurbani.
Nazia met the film’s director Feroz Khan at a party in the United Kingdom. Khan later requested Hassan have an audition with Biddu, a London-based Indian music composer. Biddu then signed her up for Aap Jaisa Koi, the song he composed for Qurbani.
The song was a huge success in India and despite Nazia being a Pakistani, she gained overnight fame there. In 1981, Nazia won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback for Aap Jaisa Koi.
Nazia’s third album, Young Tarang was released in 1984. Her fourth album, Hotline was released in 1987. Aa Haan was the most popular song of the album.
In 1991, Nazia and her brother Zoheb recorded her fifth album, Camera Camera. Before the album’s release, Nazia and Zoheb announced during a launching ceremony that it would be their last album. The album was released in 1992. It was not as successful as Nazia’s previous albums and received only average reaction. After the album’s release, Nazia left her singing career.
She died of lung cancer on August 13, 2000.
