Heart can only be touched with love. And anyone who can touch your heart becomes a great person. Nazia Hassan was one such individual. She was born to Mr. Basir Hassan and Mrs. Munizeh Basir on 3rd April 1965. During her teenage years, she showed interest in singing and immediately started stealing the hearts of people with her mesmerizing voice and charming personality. Success began to follow her at the age of just fifteen when she provided vocals for the song Aap Jaisa Koi for Feroz Khan’s movie Qurbani – a movie that later went on to became the biggest hit of the 1980 year. Her song Aap Jaisa Koi gained her fans not only in Pakistan but across the globe as well, and she was also awarded the glorious Filmfare award for it.
Nazia Hassan started her pop-singing career with albums such as Disco Deewane, Young Tarang, Hotline, and Camera Camera. She died of lung cancer on 13th August 2000 at the age of 35. It’s been 10 years since we lost this legendary person but it still seems unreal after listening to her soothing voice. We – the PakiUM staff – pay tribute to the beautiful and graceful queen of disco, Nazia Hassan.
1. The beginning and impact-full ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’
The influential journey of this beautiful princess started from a song named Aap Jaisa Koi, which she sung for a box-office hit Bollywood movie Qurbani. The success of this song made her earn the prestigious Filmfare award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1981, setting a record of being the youngest recipient of the award at age 15.
2. The dominating pop-singing career
After the success of Aap Jaisa Koi, noted composer/producer Biddu signed the brother-sister duo of Nazia and Zoheb for an album named Disco Deewane, which actually was the name of the title track as well. It was the biggest selling album of that time in Asia and it also helped changing the trends of music within Pakistan and India. It featured songs such as Ao Na, Disco Deewane, and Komal Komal which earned huge appreciation.
She, along with her brother Zoheb, worked with Biddu again for their second album Star/Boom Boom, which also made them earn success. After two years, in 1984, they released their third album Young Tarang in which songs like Aag, Dum Dum Dee Dee, Dosti, and Ankhein Milane Wale were featured. It was the first album in Pakistan to feature music videos and it also sold 40 million copies which set a record for being the biggest selling video of all time.
The brother-sister sensation collaborated with Biddu once again; this time for their fourth album Hotline, which was Nazia’s second best selling album and the song Aa Haan was the most popular one in this album. Camera Camera was their last album and it had popular songs like Tali Thay Thale and Dil Ki Lagi. After the release of Camera Camera, Nazia left her singing career to focus on her personal life.
3. Life after the singing career & Death
After her retirement, Biddu offered her to sing Made in India – a song that was later sung by Alisha Chinai – but the singer refused to sing a song that might offend their nation Pakistan. In 1995, Nazia married an entrepreneur, Ishtiaq Beig, with whom she had a son, Areez, in 1997. The couple got divorced on August 4 2000 and after nine days, the beautiful pop-singer of Pakistan died of lung cancer at the age of just 35.
The news of her death spread around the world in just a matter of minutes because she was undoubtedly the greatest pop-singer of all time and the space created by her death cannot be filled by anyone because she had a beauty of an angel, heart-touching voice, and most importantly; a good character. Nazia Hassan was a wonderful human being and she will be missed and remembered forever.
