Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born in Faisalabad-Pakistan in 1948. His family originally belonged to Jallandhar-India, but after the partition of the two countries, the family had moved to Pakistan.
Nusrat’s father, Fateh Ali Khan, was a musicologist, singer, and instrumentalist. He sang ‘Qawwalis’, and he did not encourage his son to join his vocation, preferring him to become a doctor or a lawyer. However, his young lad was not interested to pursue any other line.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is largely credited to have promoted popularity for ‘Qawwalis’. By the early 1980’s, he had released albums in India, Europe, Japan.
He also drew a contract with Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham-U.K. His career scaled to new heights when in 1985, he began performing, internationally.
By 1988, Nusrat Khan teamed with artists like Peter Gabriel, Micheal Brook; he grouped with Pearl Jam’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs from the soundtrack: Dead Man Walking. He also sang for Bollywood. The rendering of his songs was mainly in Urdu and Punjabi – though he also has sung a few songs in the Persian language.
Many honorary titles came his way.
In 2010, CNN placed him among the twenty most iconic musicians from the past 50 years.
He was given the title of Ustad after he had performed at a function in Lahore – commemorating his father’s death anniversary.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan will be remembered for the ‘spiritual flavor’ which was predominant in his style of zesty singing. He is known to his fans as an artist with a tremendous stamina – he could perform for 6 to 10 hours at a go.
Unfortunately, the maestro’s demise came early. He was only 48 years of age when he died due to liver and kidney failure in London, while on the way to Los Angles in order to receive a kidney transplant. His wife, Naheed, passed away in 2013 - leaving behind a daughter, Nida.