Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Born into a famous musical family, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – born December 9, 1974, in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan – is one of the most popular and highest paid singers in his homeland. The son of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan and nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a playback singer for Hindi cinema (Bollywood) and Pakistani cinema (Lollywood). However, he is best known as a Qawwali singer, which is a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing. Drawn to music as a child, he often sang with his father and uncle, who started training him in Qawwali singing at the age of 7. Performing in public for the first time at the age of 9, he became a member of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s group and toured the UK when he was 11 years old. When Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died in 1997, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan took over as leader of his band. He began his recording career that same year and had the song “Kisi Roz Milo Hamein Shaam Dhaley” featured in the Pakistani film Mard Jeenay Nahi Detay. After several more songs featured in in Pakistani films, he began releasing Qawwali albums such as Janasheen and Aaja Mere Yaar before issuing his first US album, the critically acclaimed Rahat (2001). Rahat Fateh Ali Khan began recording music for Hindi (Bollywood) films in 2003, earning many awards over the years for songs such as “Ajj Din Chadheya” (from 2009’s Love Aaj Kal), “Tere Mast Mast Do Nain” (from 2010’s Dabangg), and many more. By the early 2000s, he was an international star and performed with international artists and recorded music for soundtracks including Dead Man Walking with Eddie Vedder (1995), The Four Feathers with James Horner (2002), and Apocalypto (2005). Although he achieved great success internationally and became one of the most successful Pakistani singers of all time, he never turned his back on his career as a Qawwali singer and released albums such as Sada-e-Sarhad (2005), Charkha (The Album) (2008), and more. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan recorded numerous sessions for the Pakistani live TV series Coke Studios and released a series of live albums in the Coke Studios series: 1 (2008), 7 (2014), 9 (2016), 10 (2017), 12 (2019), and 13 (2020). Throughout his career, he has received numerous honors including five Lux Style Awards, four UK Asian Music Awards, three Mirchi Music Awards, and many others.