The most famous singer of Sufi poets, especially Sindhi Kafis, is undoubtedly Abida Parveen. Born in 1957 in Larkana, Sindh, she
received her initial musical training from her father, Ustad Ghulam Haider.
Later, she studied under Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of the Sham Chorassi gharana of
classical music.
Abida Parveen sings in Sindhi, Urdu, Seraiki, Punjabi and Persian, today she
is considered the finest Sufi vocalists of the modern era.
When in 1970 she performed in public for the first time at the Urs of Hazrat
Shah Latif, a new era began in the world of music. But she says, "It is the
kalam [works] of the Sufi saints, not my voice, that involves the listeners in
my music."
Abida Parveen started her professional career from Radio Pakistan, Hyderabad,
in 1973. Her first hit was the Sindhi song “Tuhinje zulfan jay band kamand
widha”.She is considered one of the most prominent contemporary exponents of the
great ghazal and kafi musical styles from the Indian subcontinent. Rooted in the
intense encounter between sensitivity and spirituality that is Sufism. She never
ceases to sing her fiery love for the Divine. The earliest memories of her
childhood are all linked to her passion for music and her desire to sing. Born
in 1954 in Larkana, Sindh into a family tat maintains close associations with
the shrines of Sufi saints.
Hyderabad Radio officially first introduced her in 1977. She is today the
most popular and well-known folk and ghazal singer of Pakistan who breathed a
new life into ghazal and semi-classical music. She holds an audience of
thousands spellbound. Her appearance is a complete reverse of many other stage
performers. She begins each number as solemnly as the previous one as the
evening progresses, sinking deeper and deeper into her kafi’s and Sufiana kalam
of the mystic poets. She is a woman of very few words and asks to be judged only
by her music. This folk phenomenon, called Abida Parveen, is deeply religious
and profoundly humble.
Abida Parveen first sang for television in
1979. Her popularity reached new heights after she sang “Gharooli”," a Punjabi
kafi, for Karachi Television's "Awaaz-o-Andaaz" in 1980. Until then, Sufi songs
were seldom presented on the national hookup, but Abida's renditions changed
that.
Abida Parveen is the finest singer of ghazal, geet and Sindhi, Seraiki and
Punjabi Kafees. “While Khayal and Thumri became a part of her childhood
training, her effective rendering of folk and traditional music with great
sophistication and without losing the basic characteristics of the regional
music of Sindh has made her a versatile singer.”
Her fame traveled through Pakistan and across the seas, and she toured USA,
UK, and France in 1985 and 1988. Her 1988 performance in Chicago was recorded by
the Hazrat Amir Khusro Society of Art and Culture, which issued a long-play
record of her renderings, and her 1989 performance in London's Wembly Conference
Hall was recorded by the British Broadcasting Corporation and aired for an hour.
She has represented Pakistan in India and has performed for huge audiences in
Pakistan and the Middle East. Abida Parveen sings semi-classical and classical
music, Ghazals and Geets, and Kafis in Sindhi, Punjabi, and Seraiki with equal
ease.
Her classical training enables her to render folk and traditional music with
great sophistication without losing its regional flavour. Her command of the kafis of
Sufi poets Shah Latif, Sachal Sarmast, Bulley Shah, Khawaja Farid, and Shah
Hussain is unmatched. As a ghazal singer, Abida prefers the poetry of Nasir
Kazmi, Mustafa Zaidi, Ibne Insha, and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Abida Parveen is the recipient of many awards: the Shah Abdul Latif Award
(twice,) the Sindh Graduate Association Award, the Sachal Sarmast Award, the
Pakistan Television Award, the Qalandar Lal Shahbaz Award, and of course the
President's Pride of Performance.
Although she is a famous figure in the world of music, Abida Parveen is
simple, soft-spoken, and courteous woman. In 1975 she married Sheikh Ghulam
Hussain of Radio Pakistan, Hyderabad. She is the mother of two daughters and a
son.
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