Pakistani News for the Rest of Us

With his catchy numbers and boyish good looks that make female fans swoon, Roy is the latest musician to try his luck in India from across the salt desert. While Hindi films are only now making their way to theatres in Pakistan, music has always made it’s way across the border to our country. And …

About 31 students from various schools, colleges and universities and 23 amateur singers enthralled performed during the session. As per the conference’s 50-year-old tradition, the first session featured students and amateurs. Lahore’s music enthusiasts saw excellent performances by talented amateurs amidst magical lights and the smell of paapars being made on red hot coal, …

Adams, who performed most of his hits and moved the audience with “Summer of 69″, said he was glad to discover new fans in Pakistan. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams thrilled 10,000 fans at a concert in Karachi on Sunday, the first big show by a Western singer in Pakistan in decades, to help students affected …

Young, old, ladies and gentlemen all remained mesmerized under the spell of the melodies of the musicians and songsters, who kept them enthralled in pin drop silence listening to the heart penetrating ‘Raags’ and warming up ‘Ghazals’ in the chill winter night till wee hours. The rich milieu of artists drawn from all over Pakistan …

The day kicks off in the afternoon at the shrine of Data Ganj Baksh Hajveri (Bestower of Treasures), a 11th century Sufi mystic renowned for his concern for the poor, outside the old city. Some of the best quawwali singers from far and near, including the legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, turned up to …

Among other creative works like Pekhawar Kho Pekhawar Dey Ka Na; Bibi Sherine, etc, reproducing a ghazal of prominent mystic poet Rehman Baba with video shots is another attempt to attract viewers in this modern day communication revolution. With the rising trend of giving new touch and remixing old songs, Ghazals and poems, etc, of …

His group was banned from performing in Pakistan from 1996 to 1999 after referring to government corruption in a song and protesting Pakistan’s and India’s nuclear testing. One of Salman Ahmad’s earliest gigs was a talent show at King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, where he was studying to be a doctor. Moments after …

Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, has only one sitar maker, and he is afraid that after his death, there will be no one to carry on the legacy. Zafar says that sitar making has become such a rarity that it alone cannot help him sustain and in the day he has to work as an assistant …

The group plays the tunes of famous Indian and Pakistani songs and dances in marriages and birthdays. Ahmed said they are happy to be associated with the business although they sometimes have no work for three days in a row. They are not arranging a Bar BQ dinner for six, but that’s the routine of …

With traditional Kashmir songs and the deep resonating sounds of the rabab — a guitar-like instrument — Rathar, a popular radio presenter and musician, is reaching out to the survivors of the October 8 quake that killed 87,000 and left more than 3 million homeless with the message that life must go on. The building …

This, in itself, is a cultural and even political event in Pakistan, a country where dance was officially banned for many years and the opposition coalition, the MMA, is dominated by extremist clerics who would like the same to happen to music. For Lahore, the 10-day festival was a huge, at times startling cultural event. …

The Rev. Raushenbush was hooked, and, within five minutes of sending out an e-mail to Pakistani and Indian students on campus asking them if they’d heard of Salman Ahmad and would enjoy a performance, the Rev. Raushenbush had his answer: “The student response was like, ‘Have you heard of Bruce Springsteen?’” he said. When the …

NINE years ago, Huddersfield singer Naveed Yasin began a study of music that has taken him all over the world. Now, his hard work has paid off and he’s landed a record deal with Manchester-based bhangra label Supreme Dream Records. Then, when he was 13 he moved to New York for a year to be …

Rangeen made Zafar very popular and the Indian music industry can’t seem to have enough of him. Ad film-maker Prahlad Kakkar calls him the Shah Rukh Khan of Pakistan. His popular track Rangeen has been plagiarised and used in Aashiq Banaya Aapne — for which Reshammiya is grabbing the credits. Born in Lahore, this 25-year-old …