Noor Jahan The Queen of Melody

Noor Jahan the most influential singer of South Asia, her real name is Allah Wasai. Noor Jahan was born on September 21, 1926 in a Punjabi musician’s family. She got honorific title as Malika-e-Taram(Queen of Melody). She was not only a singer but actress as well. Noor Jahan was more interested in acting and graced so many films of Pakistan with her wonderful performance.

She sung songs in many languages of India and Pakistan such as,

• Urdu
• Hindi
• Punjabi
• Sindhi

She holds the highest record of film songs in the history of Pakistani Cinema. Noor Jahan is also the first female film director of Pakistan. After she quit acting, she went for playback singing. She made her debut as a playback singer in 1960 with the film Salma.

Her first initial playback for a Pakistani film was for Jan-e-Bahar (1958), in which she sang the song Kaisa Naseeb Layi Thi.

She received many awards, including with the highest Pakistani honour in  entertainment, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (The Pride of Performance) in 1966, Pakistan's top civil award. She sung so many patriotic songs during the 1965 war between Pakistan and India, such as Aye Watan Ke Sajile Jawano.

In 2000,Noor Jahan was hospitalised in Karachi while she had a heart attack. On Saturday afternoon, December 23, 2000, Noor Jehan died from heart failure. Her funeral took place at Jamia Masjid Sultan, Karachi and she was buried at the Gizri Graveyard near the Saudi Consulate in Karachi. Her death was a big loss for Pakistan. Singers like her are born once in a millenium.