Ahmed Rushdi, (Urdu: احمد رشدی; April 24, 1934 – April 11, 1983) was a legendary Pakistani playback singer. He was "an important contributor to the Golden age of Pakistani movie music." Rushdi is acclaimed as one of the greatest singers ever lived in south Asia.[1] He is considered to be one of the most famous and versatile singers of the subcontinent. He is also considered to be the first regular pop singer of south Asia.[2] and credited as having sung the "first-ever South asian" pop song.[3] In 1954, he recorded the official National anthem of Pakistan with several other singers.[4][5] Rushdi has recorded the highest number of movie songs in the history of Pakistani cinema in many languages. He suffered from poor health during the latter part of his life and died of a heart attack at the age of 48, after recording approximately five thousand movie songs for 583 released movies. Besides popular music, Rushdi also helped popularize the ghazals of Naseer Turabi.[6] In 2003, 20 years after his death, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf awarded him the Sitara-e-Imtiaz.[7]
Popularity
Many of his contemporaries compared his music with that of classically trained singers, although Rushdi never had any influences from any classical singer. He is famously known as Magician of voice and his popularity also turned traditional classical singers against him but did not affect his fame and his death is termed as irreparable loss to the industry.[8] Actor Waheed Murad declared Rushdi's song, "Bhooli hui hoon daastan", his favorite song.[9] Music directors like M.Ashraf and Nisar Bazmi also hold centaury partnerships with Ahmed Rushdi and they have composed hundreds of songs for him. According to complete songography, M.Ashraf composed 734 songs in 211 movies for Rushdi but available figures indicate a composition of 132 songs in 100 movies for him. The first movie of this pair was Speran in 1961 and the last was Hero in 1983.[10] Ahmed Rushdi influenced many singers in music industry.
Death
Since 1976, Ahmed Rushdi was a heart patient and his doctors advised him to abstain from singing but Rushdi refused by saying that music was his life. When he had a second heart attack in 1981, he was composing a musical album in the voice of singer Mujeeb Aalam. On the night of April 11, 1983,[11] he had a third heart attack. He was immediately taken to the hospital but pronounced dead by the doctors. He was 48.[12] Rushdi was buried at Sakhi Hassan Graveyard, Karachi. His last non movie song was "Aaney walo suno" which was a duet with Mehnaz.
Awards
Nigar Awards
- 1961 - Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Chand Sa Mukhra Gora Badan" in movie Saperan
- 1962 - Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Gol Gappey Wala" in movie Mehtaab
- 1963 - Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Kisi Chaman Mei Raho" in movie Anchal
- 1966 - Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Akeley Na Jana" in movie Armaan
- 1970 - Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Aey Abr-e-Karam" in movie Naseeb Apna Apna
- 2004 - Life Time Achievement Award
References
