Remembering Mehnaz Begum

Mehnaz Begum (1958 - 2013) was born in karachi to the celebrated subcontinental singer Kajjan Begum. She was trained under her mother in music and sang a variety of genres, including ghazal, thumri, dadra and geet. She also sang for films in the 70s and 80s. She died at Bahrain Airport January 19, 2013 while traveling from Karachi to Miami, where she was going for medical treatment.She was 55. She sung over 2,500 songs for the radio‚ television and films which is the second largest after that of Malika-e-Taranum Madam Noor Jehan’s. Her widely acclaimed ghazals included “Ab Kay Tajdeed-e-Wafa Ka Nahi Imkaan” and “Mujhe Dil Se Na Bhulana”. She was so versatile that she even made her mark on khayal, dadra and drupad singing. Mehnaz also recited salam, noha and marsiya. Introduced by Salim Gilani, Mehnaz made her debut on Radio Pakistan in 1973. The same year, Ameer Imam, a Karachi television producer, signed her for a musical programme ‘Naghmazaar’ bringing her to television audience. Her most popular songs are from ‘Aina’ and ‘Bandish’. In 1981, Mehnaz toured the US and Canada, where she sang for large audiences in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Toronto. Three years later, she visited the United Kingdom and captivated a large audience with her magical voice.In his condolence message, the president Zardari lauded the invaluable contributions of Mehnaz Begum in the field of music and said that in her demise, the music industry has lost a great asset. He said that her melodious voice would be remembered for long. Expressing sympathies with the bereaved family and her millions of fans, he prayed to the Almighty to grant eternal peace to the departed soul and to give courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss with fortitude.