Arthur Nayyar, popularly known as A. Nayyar is a living legend. He was born on 17th, September 1950. Nayyar belongs to a Pakistani Christian family and started his career as a singer in the Pakistani music industry in 1974 when he sang a duet with Rubina Badar. He has sung songs of all genres but found a new generation of fans with popular numbers.
In his early years, Nayyar and family lived in Arifwala where his father served as a government employee. It was the time when there was no TV or radio and all that was available to Nayyar to keep his interest in music alive was a cinema near his home.
After moving to Lahore, Nayyar joined St. Francis School where he completed his matriculation. Even in school Nayyar was part of many singing competitions and kept on rehearsing before every performance. Then he joined Forman Christian College to pursue further education. His teachers and friends were fond of his music and they arranged music programs on a regular basis.
With no proper music training, Nayyar learnt the basics of music from Samuel Mumtaz, a local Pastor who had the proper know-how of music. Nayyar also listened to maestros like Kishor Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mehdi Hassan, Noor Jahan, and Lata Mangeshkar to polish his skills in the unavailability of a music teacher.
After repeated attempts of gaining recognition, in 1973 he got a break in PTV through a program ‘Naey Fankaar’ produced by Rafique Warraich. The program aimed at introducing new talent. Then Nayyar got an opportunity to perform in ‘Hum Sukhan’ produced by Athar Waqar Azeem. As the show also featured popular singers of the era, Nayyar gained recognition as the program was televised many times.
The year 1974 came with a big break in the film industry for Nayyar and he debuted with a song in the movie ‘Bahisht’. After collaborating with maestros of that time, his career took off and there was no turning back until the 90’s. The press called him ‘one man show’ and termed him as the only male singer in the industry.
Nayyar’s career saw a downfall as the culture of the Pakistani film industry changed and as he had a passion of not compromising on lyrics, he faced a set back. Nayyar also sang Punjabi songs with legendary Madam Noor Jahan for almost a decade.
According to EMI, Nayyar has sung about 4200 films, television and radio songs. He has served the country with sincerity and devotion. Arthur Nayyar received seven Nigar, eight Graduate, four Bolan, and a National and Presidential award.
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