Nayyara Noor is a Pakistani playback singer who is considered one of South Asia's popular film songs playback singer and a stage performer. She performs in the live ghazal singing concerts on Pakistan Television shows or in concert halls in the country. She has mainly been active from 1971–2012.
Early life and career
Nayyara Noor was born in 1950 in Guwahati, Assam, northeastern India, and spent her early childhood there. Her family and ancestors, belonging to a merchant class, were long settled in Assam having migrated from Amritsar, in Punjab. Her father was an active member of the All-India Muslim League, and had hosted Pakistan's founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah during his trip to Assam before the partition in 1947. In 1957 or 1958, Noor with her mother and siblings migrated from India to Pakistan, settling in Karachi. However, her father stayed back in Assam until 1993 to look after the family's immovable properties. 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 programs. In 1971, Nayyara made her public singing debut in Pakistani television serials and then beginning with films like Gharana and Tansen. She has since sung ghazals penned by the famous poets like Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and has performed with legends like Mehdi Hassan and Ahmed Rushdi. She has won three gold medals in the All Pakistan Music Conference and a Nigar Award for best playback female singer in film Gharana . She has since performed at countless mehfils and mushairas having cemented a following among ghazal lovers in Pakistan and India. Probably the most famous ghazal of hers was Ae Jazba-e-Dil Gar Main Chahoon, written by Behzad Lakhnavi, a renowned poet of Urdu naats and ghazals, scriptwriter and songwriter of Radio Pakistan. Nayyara Noor later won many awards for this ghazal.
Singing career
She is a versatile singer and following are some all time great ghazals recorded in her voice:
'Watan ki mitti gawah rehna' is widely listened to from Karachi to Khyber, Pakistan.
During her long singing career, she has sung ghazals, geet, nazm and national songs. Sober and shy, she has always maintained her high singing standards from the beginning. She has also recorded hundreds of songs for the Pakistani films.
Some Nayyara Noor's famous film songs
Nayyara's versatile voice touches the hearts of her fans in Pakistan and across the borders in India. More of her super- hit film songs are listed below:
'Ik ajnabi chehray'
'Mera pyar tumhee ho'
'Mausum tau diwana hai'
'Tera pyar bun kay Aaye'
'Zara meri nabz deikh kar'
'Phool bun ja-oon gee'
'Kuchh loag mohabbat ka sila'
Nayyara's admirers look forward to listening to her melodious voice for many years to come from her recordings. However, Nayyara Noor officially announced in 2012 that she no longer will sing professionally. After her marriage, she maintains that her primary roles have been those of a wife and a mother. She says that music has been a passion with her but never her top priority. Making money also has not been very important to her.
