Shamshad khan
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Shamshad Begum: Hindi Cinema’s Original Nightingale
Those who have a soft spot for old Hindi songs will immediately recognise yesteryear hits like ‘Le Ke Pehla Pehla Pyaar’, ‘Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon’ and ‘Kajra Mohabbat Wala’. Decades may have passed, but these songs continue to flourish both in their original versions and as remixes. Behind these and many other hits songs of Hindi cinema’s ‘Golden Age’ is the voice of a reclusive yet powerful singer, Shamshad Begum.
One of the first major playback singers in Hindi films and a Padma Bhushan awardee, Shamshad is often hailed as India’s original nightingale.
Shamshad Begum, in her later years. Source: Facebook
Shamshad was born on April 14, 1919 in a Muslim Jatt family. In recent years, many reports have stated that she was born in Amritsar. However, the singer and her daughter have clarified this stating that her birthplace was actually Lahore, then a part of undivided India. Her father was a mechanic and her mother a homemaker. She also had eight siblings.
Growing up, Shamshad sang at weddings as well as at r
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Shamshad Begum (born April 14, 1919) is an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry.
Begum was born in Amritsar, Punjab. She was a big fan of K.L. Saigal and watched Devdas 14 times. She earned 15 rupees per song and was awarded 5,000 on the completion of the contract on Xenophone, a renowned music recording company.
Begum made her debut on radio on Peshawar Radio in Lahore on December 16, 1937, captivating the hearts of her listeners with the enchanting depth of her voice. Shamshad was very much conscious of her not so beautiful face and she never posed for any pictures and not many people saw her pictures anywhere. Until the end of the 1970s, nobody knew her face at all, though everybody could recognise her melodious voice as it was used by the great maestros like Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar. Even today, her songs from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s are popular and continue to be remixed by music directors.
Begum sang for the All India Radio (AIR) through her musical group 'The Crown Imperial Theatrical Company of Performing
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Shamshad Begum
Indian playback singer (1919–2013)
Shamshad Begum (Urdu: شمشاد بیگم, IAST: Śamśād Bēgam; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013)[1][2][3] was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry.
Notable for her distinctive voice and range, she sang over 6,000 songs in Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages, among which 1287 were Hindi film songs.[4]
She worked with renowned composers of the time, such as Ghulam Haider who first discovered her.[5] She also worked with Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar, for whom she was one of their favorites. Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed.[5][6]
Awards and recognition
Personal life
Shamshad Begum was born in Lahore, British India (present-day Pakistan) on 14 April 1919[9][10] the day after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in nearby Amritsar. She was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters, b
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