Hayat

Hadiqa Kiani is a Pakistani superstar, a playback and pop singer with a phenomenal international following. Here, she returns to her early classically trained roots with an album of qawwali dedicated to other Pakistani superstars: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Sabri Brothers. The performances here lack the raw emotional quality of these singers of qawwali, and the impeccable Abida Parveen, but Hadiqa Kiani’s vocal ability is never in doubt. The album comprises an extremely polished performance of three classic tracks: the very traditional ‘Saanson ki Mala’ and two more recent pieces, ‘Paisa Bolta Hai’ and ‘Dil Lagi’, by Nusrat himself. In this she is aided by equally polished backing singing and some great tabla playing by Ustad Dildar Hussain. Once or twice, you realise that we are in a far more controlled realm here than a traditional performance, as evidenced, for example, by the rather disconcerting diatonic harmonies that creep in at the beginning of the first track. All in all, though, this is a credible effort which is worth a listen for all fans of the genre.