Nayyara Noor

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Nayyara Noor (1950 - ) is a Pakistani singer considered one of the subcontinent's foremost exponents in the Ghazal genre.

[edit] Biography

Nayyara Noor was born in 1950 in Assam. Her family was a merchant class hailing from Amritsar who had settled in Guwahati in Assam State in the Eastern India. Her father was an active member of the Muslim League and in 1958, the family moved to Pakistan. As a child, Nayyara is said to have been inspired by the bhajans of Kanan Devi and Kamla as well as the ghazals and thumris of Begum Akhtar.

Although Nayyara had no formal musical background nor formal training, she was discovered by Professor Israr at the Islamia College in Lahore after hearing her sing for her friends and teachers at an annual dinner at the National College of Arts in Lahore in 1968. Soon thereafter she was asked to sing for the university's Radio Pakistan programme.

In 1971, Nayyara made her pubic singing debut in Pakistani television serials and then beginning with films like Gharana and Tansen. She has since sung ghazals composed by the likes of Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and has performed with Mehdi Hassan. She has won three gold medals in the All Pakistan Music Conference and a Nigar Award for best female singer. She has since performed at countless mehfils and mushairas having cemented a following among ghazal lovers in Pakistan and India.