Daily Times

LAHORE: Legendary pop diva Nazia Hassan who together with her brother Zoheb Hassan ruled the 80s and 90s is being remembered by fans across the world on what would have been her 53^rd birthday.

The undisputed queen of pop in India and Pakistan is credited with bringing the disco and indie-pop music to the subcontinent. The duo was regarded as youth icons and were adored by masses for their unique brother-sister act comprising music composition, singing and performing.

Nazia Hassan was born on April 3rd 1965 and had her first TV appearance as a child artist on Shoaib Mansoor’s show singing Dosti Aisa Naata. As the age of 15, Nazia made her singing debut with Aap Jaisa Koi song in Feroz Khan’s hit film Qurbani and went on to break all records. The song was a massive hit and this acclaim and popularity led her to team up with her brother Zoheb Hassan who was into writing and composing songs and celebrated music director based in London Biddu and came up with their very first album Disco Deewane.

The song Disco Deewane as well as the other songs in the album became mad hit and youth anthems. Her songs topped all charts home, in India and South Asian music charts abroad. It is mainly for this song that Nazia is credited with bringing disco music to the subcontinent.

It’s the very same song which Indian film producer Karan Johar brought back to life by including it in his 2012’s hit Student of the Year movie and kept Nazia’s main vocals.

After the sky-rocketing fame and beginning to rule millions of hearts, Nazia and Zoheb went on to release four more albums titled Star, Young Tarang, Hotline and Camera Camera.

Nazia earned critical acclaim and went on to receive many awards which are a first for Pakistani artists. Some of the prestigious awards she received include the Filmfare, Golden Disk and posthumously awarded Pride of Performance which is the highest civil award.

Another fact that many people of the new generation probably don’t know about her is that she wasn’t just an excellent artist but also a great human being who believed in doing something for the masses. This is evident from her dedicating one of her albums to the social cause Ban against Narcotics (BAN) discouraging the growing drug use among the youths at the time.

Nazia’s spirit of humanism led her to stop accepting offers of music albums and actively pursue philanthropy.  She went back to school and earned an LL.B degree from University of Lancaster – another fact that many don’t know is that she became an excellent advocate of human rights and went on to work as Political Analyst at the United Nations (UN) headquarters. There on her work and research focused on disputed territories including Kashmir and Palestine.

In late 90s, she was diagnosed with cancer and went through several chemotherapy sessions. The news of her illness devastated her fans. Nazia was a fighter and she continued smiling and giving everyone a message of hope in her TV appearance when she was in remission.

Just as thing stated looking up, she relapsed and with a returned and stronger cancer, she was admitted to the hospital where she went through another round of treatment which was even stronger. She breathed her last on August 13, 2000 at only 35 and left everyone in utter shock and devastation.

The beautiful soul that she was had a turbulent married life. This is something she didn’t want to discuss in public and I would like to honour her wishes. She made it a point to finalise her divorce while she was in the hospital for the second round of treatment.

Her bereaved family includes her son Arez Hassan who was only 3 at the time of her passing.

It’s been nearly 18 years since Nazia Hassan passed away but she continues to rule the hearts of millions of fans who still remember her and continue listening to her music. This includes the new generation of fans who were born after Nazia’s passing.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua

A version of this article appears in Daily Times, April 3rd, 2018