Rahim Shah is a leading Pashto pop singer. He started from Peshawar

Peshawar

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and is currently based in Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

, Pakistan. He sings in Pashto, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

. He is an ethnic Pashtun

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

.

Early life

Shah was born in Karachi where he was cultured and educated yet his ancestry origin is from Swat

Swat (Pakistan)

Swat is a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, located close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. It is the upper valley of the Swat River, which rises in the Hindu Kush range. The capital of Swat is Saidu Sharif, but the main town in the Swat valley is Mingora...

. Shah is multi-lingual and is fluent in Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi.

Career

Shah's solo career began in the late 1990s with lots of hits to his credit from the onset, to mention the song Ghum which broke popularity records. Ghum is not Rahim Shah's personal composition; it is Pashto folk song or tappa, sung by an anonymous singer. Haroon Bacha, a well-known Pashtun singer also sang Ghum, but it was Shah who made the song a hit because he translated the 'tappa' into Urdu and gave the song his own arrangement. In a short span of time, Shah has shown his singing talent beyond belief. He sang Ghum under the supervision of Salman Alvin and recorded his album working extremely hard on making it different to others. The song turned out to be a huge hit and was highly appreciated by the people.

His Pashto album Peera became an instant hit after its release. Another album called Sabaru had success with the tracks Tap Tap and Payal, in the same year he released another Pashto album titled Medda Medda. After taking a short time of reflection he returned to work bringing another hit with the song Channa. He also worked on three videos that were Priya and Rang Lai Mehndi, directed by Sarwar whereas Suhail Javed directed his third video Tere Ishq Ne. Shah also sang Jhoola, which he wrote and dedicated to his mother whom he dearly loves.

Shah once said the only difference he saw between his debut album and his current album is the music arrangement.

His new '12 track' album has taken a year to produce and will be released by the help of Fire Records. Shah has placed a real touch to his arrangements and used authentic music in the songs. The album contains music from three genres: film based music, folk music and pop music. Currently he has also been working on a video with professional focus on high budget videos with visual and marketing aids, which are an essential requirement within today's music industry. Shah is known to have said, "There is no doubt that we (Pakistani's) have got very good music but they (Indians) have a very good market.

Audience in India

Shah attracted the attention of Indian audience with his song Pehle Toh Kabhi Kabhi Gham Tha, a tune which was sung in Pashto by renowned Pashto singer Haroon Bacha. This was later re-copied by Indian singer Altaf Raja

Altaf Raja

Altaf Raja is an Indian singer. Born to professional Qawwals, Raja began musical training at the age of 18. After his voice training, he began winning awards at various competitions. In 1997, Venus gave him the much-deserved break and Altaf made history with his debut album Tum To Thehre Pardesi....

. Shah still has somewhat of a fan base in India.

Personal life

Shah's favourite singers are Salman Alvi, Nayyara Noor, Sonu Nigam and Asha. He has interest in welfare work but doesn't like to ask for donations. He said about his short hair, "it's better a singer is remembered for his cheerful sounding vocals than his long hair".

Albums

• Ghum (1999)
• Saba Ru (2001)
• Laila
• Peera
• Channa (2003)
• Pyar Nahin Milta (2004)
• Yarana (2005)
• Chercha (2007)
• Maa'ma Dey (September 2009)
• Gul Jana 2011

Singles

• "Bewafa"
• "Danga Datha"
• "Ghum"
• "Chhum Chhum"
• "Channa"
• "Jhula"
• "Payal"
• "Ghanam Rangi"
• "Mama Dey"

External links