Lahore (Web Desk): Veteran singer Alamgir, considered one of the pioneers of the Urdu pop music, is celebrating his 62nd birthday today.
The King of Pakistani Pop music sang a few film songs earlier in his career before turning full throttle to pop singing and inspiring generations of musicians and singers. His voice has a soothing and caressing effect on the listener and reveals his unassuming personality.
Alamgir was born in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) into a Bengali family. He studied in Mirzapur Cadet College, Tangail, in the province of East Bengal. He briefly studied in B A F Shaheen College in Dhaka. After the death of his politician father who had been a contemporary of the late Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, most of his ten siblings began to migrate to Canada and the United States. In 1973, Alamgir went to live with his aunt in Karachi in Pakistan and enrolled for higher studies there while awaiting his turn for emigration to North America.
He concedes that during his student days music dominated his life. While singing for local pop bands, he began to be noticed and a performance on Karachi Television in 1973 at the age of 15, earned him instant fame and launched him on the road to stardom.
He has sung about 400 songs for Television alone. He has sung not many for the film and received Pride of Performance Award in 2013 by the President of Pakistan and Nigar Award- Special Nigar Award for Aaina (1977 film) for Best Playback Singer.