ISLAMABAD, Apr 24 (APP):Versatile Pakistani playback singer Ahmed Rushdi was remembered on the occasion of his 85th birth anniversary on Wednesday (Today).
Rushdi was born on April 24, 1934 in Hyderabad Deccan in a religious family. After partition he migrated to Pakistan and became a leading singer in the Pakistan film industry.
Rushdi is best known for his distinctive, melodious, powerful voice, complex and dark emotional expressions which led many critics to declare his voice as most distinctive they had ever heard.
He is also considered to be the first regular pop singer of South Asia and credited as having sung the “first-ever South Asian” pop song, “KO-KO-Korina in the film Armaan.
In 1954, he recorded the official National anthem of Pakistan with several other singers. Rushdi recorded the highest number of film songs in the history of Pakistani cinema in Urdu, English, Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi and Gujarati languages and found unprecedented success as a playback artist from the mid-1950s to early 1980s.
In 1954, Ahmad Rushdi began participating in music and children’s programs of Radio Pakistan.
He recorded his first non-film song, “Bunder Road se Keemari”, for the popular Radio Pakistan show Bachchon Ki Duniya.
The song was hit and became the steppingstone for Rushdi’s future.
In recognition of services for the music industry, he was posthmously awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2003 besides Nigar, Graduate, Musawwir and other awards.
He was also famous for his stage performance which had a mesmerizing effect on the audience.
He suffered from poor health during the latter part of his life and died with a heart attack at the age of 48 on April 11, 1983.
