24 years on, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s legacy remains alive

It's been twenty four years since Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away but his legacy is proof that he may be gone but never forgotten.

The legendary Qawwal was born on October 13‚ 1948 in Faisalabad and was son of Fateh Ali Khan— a musician, vocalist, instrumentalist and renowned Qawwal.

He began his career by learning the tabla before moving on to vocals.

In 1964, Khan’s father died, leaving his musical education under the supervision of his paternal uncles, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan.

He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England in the early 1980s.

The renowned singer was popularly known as Shahenshah-e-Qawwali (The King of Kings of Qawwali).

Nusrat was considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded in Pakistan’s history and possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours.

Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family‚ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences. His soulful masterpieces are still admired by both youngsters and old age people across the border.

In addition, he also did several music projects with Indian music composer A R Rehman and film lyricist Javed Akhtar.

He reached out to western audiences through his work with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ in 1985.

As per Guinness Book of World Records‚ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist— total of 125 albums as of 2001.

Sadly, he left his fans in grief as he died of a sudden cardiac arrest on 16 August 1997, aged 48.