Nazia Hassan: Melody never dies!

Though Nazia Hassan is no more with us, she will always be alive through her melodious songs and lilting music.

She came, she sang, she conquered. In the early 1980s, no one else could hit the pop charts with her maiden song, as was done by Nazia Hassan, a telegenic pop singer with a mezzo-soprano but refreshing voice with immersive vocal effects. It took her debut song, ‘Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi May Aye,’ featured in Zeenat Aman-starrer Indian film ‘Qurbani,’ which propelled Nazia Hassan to the limelight straight off, both in India and Pakistan. . Though ‘Qurbani,’ directed and starred by Indian actor Feroz Khan  suffered the most in terms of its box office collections, the film gave rise to Nazia Hassan, who became a  chartbuster in a trice and continued to stay at the top of the  pop music scene in the South Asian as long as she was alive and kicking. Her debut song, ‘Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi May Aye,’ which was composed by British Indian producer Biddu, was no more of an item number picturized on Zeenat Aman for the film. However, , it turned out to be a massive hit and galvanised the Indian film industry into leaping on the pop bandwagon.

With over a million sales across India, the ‘Qurbani’ album went Platinum within just seven months, setting a record for the Indian music industry at the time. The song also won Nazia, despite her  Pakistani origins,  the  India’s premier Filmfare Award for the ‘Best Female Playback Singer’ in 1981. In so doing, she, at the tender age of 15, set the record of  being the youngest as well as the first-ever foreign recipient of the award.

Oddly enough, Michael Jackson’s new album “Thriller” was launched in 1982 with much fanfare and splendour, and he was named the ‘King of Pop’ right after the album’s release, Nazia Hassan’s was was called the ‘Queen of Pop’ in the subcontinent.

From the word go, Nazia Hassan’s rise to stardom was phenomenal. Her debut music album, ‘Disco Deewane,’ composed by Biddu and released in 1981, was a huge success at home and abroad, both monetarily and musically.  In India, it sold about 100,000 records albums within a day of its release in Bombay (Mumbai) alone, went Platinum within three weeks, and  also became Double-Platinum in such a short time. It was also the first South Asian pop album to top the charts in Brazil, while also becoming a hit in Russia, South Africa, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Latin America. The album also set a new record of success among the South Asian diaspora in regions such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and the West Indies.

Nazia Hassan’s second album ‘Boom Boom,’ released in 1982, was taken well by the audiences in India and Pakistan and,  ‘Young Tarang,’ her third album, set the trend of music videos in Pakistan with a record sale of over 40 million copies. Hit numbers of the video like ‘Ankhen Milaney Waley’, ‘Zara Chehra’ and ‘Dum Dum Dee Dee’ became the most popular songs among the South East Asia’s mainstream audiences as well as Indian and Pakistani diaspora in many countries.

The fourth album, ‘Hotline,’ released in 1987, comprised all the most popular songs of that time such as ‘Aa Haan’, ‘Hum Aur Tum’, ‘Paisa Paisa’ and ‘Telephone Pyar’. Released in 1992, their fifth as well as the last album titled ‘Camera Camera’ failed to make its presence felt and soon Nazia officially called it a day as she wanted to focus more on her personal life than music.

While talking about Nazia, one cannot forget the role of her brother, Zoheb Hassan was an accomplished singer by himself and had always remained an integral part of her sister’s singing career. His mellifluous voice matched so well with Nazia’s voice that they could easily perform together.

On a personal note, interviewing a top celebrity of her time like Nazia Hassan was indeed a memorable experience for this scribe as I found her a deeply knowledgeable person who understood the art of diplomacy well.  Had she been alive she could have become the most successful brand ambassador for Pakistan too.

According to her medical report, Nazia underwent an operation in 1995 after being diagnosed with stage one ovarian carcinoma and at end of 1998, her left lung was found with ‘a solitary deposit’ of carcinoma. In August, 2002, she lost the battle against lung cancer at the age of 35.When I went to interview her at her home at the KDA Scheme 1 in Karachi, I was received by her mother Muneeza Baseer, who informed me that Nazia had gone for chemotherapy and thus would not be in a position to talk. However, she sat down with me to discuss her daughter’s  plans for the future.

After about half an hour, Nazia entered the room, looked at me and asked, “How long you guys have been waiting for me?” In place of taking a break to refresh herself, she sat down for the interview. Speaking in a soft and measured voice, I found her  a confident and composed lady, though she otherwise looked frail, probably because of the chemotherapy session she had earlier had before the interview.

She was pretty much excited when talking about her best of times, particularly  her two years  spent working for  the United Nations Security Council at the  UN Headquarters. During that period, she worked with Dr. Henry Kissinger, a former Secretary of the United State of America. She looked very excited when describing her experience with Dr. Kissinger because of his big impact on the world history.  After completing her two-year term at the UN, she  was appointed  as the cultural ambassador of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Her social and academic excellence also won her a scholarship in Columbia University’s Leadership Programme, but she could not avail the opportunity owing to her depleting health conditions.

Quite an accomplished singer, Nazia was also a lawyer and  political analyst. She was a top graduate from the well-reputed Richmond, The American International University and the University of London. According to the media reports, her brother Zoheb Hassan, who was with her sister in her last days, spoke candidly about her final days, which were replete with agony and pain. In one of the interviews, he tearfully declared, “She never told me she was going to die so soon. I will never forgive her for this.” The turbulence of her failing marriage along with the last few days of her enduring pain was unveiled to her family, mainly after her death. Though Nazia Hassan is no more with us, she will always be alive through her lilting music and silvery songs, filled with melody and rhythm. The bells toll for everyone, however, the melody never dies.