Iqbal Bano (b. 1935) is a Ghazal singer from Pakistan and a singer of both classical and modern ghazals.
Iqbal Bano was born in 1935 in Delhi. She was brought up and raised in Delhi. Iqbal was a very talented girl musically. She possessed a sweet and appealing voice. Even from a young age, Bano developed a love for music. It was a crucial situation of her life when her friend's father came forward as a votary. He told her father "My daughters do sing reasonably well, but Iqbal is blessed in singing. She will become a big name if you begin her training." Because of persuasion from others and her attachment to music, he allowed her to be a student in music. When the dispute of partition caused a condemnable stir everywhere in India in 1947, she disliked the riot and the carnage of Delhi from the core of her heart. In Dehli, she learnt from Ustad Chaand Khan of the Delhi Gharana, an expert in all kinds of pure classical and light classical forms of vocal music. He instructed her in pure classical music and light classical music within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. She was duly initiated Gaandaabandh shagird of her Ustad. He forwarded her to All India Radio, Delhi and made her sing there. In 1952, a zamindaar from Pakistan married seventeen year old Iqbal Bano, on promise that he would never stop her music, but try to promote her. Her fulfilled his promise until he breathed his last in 1980 after the couple had been married for 28 years (1952 till 1980). After her marriage, she migrated to Garden Town, Lahore and she began learning from Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana and Ustad Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana Gharana. It was observed that her temperant was apt to genres like thumri, dadra and ghazal.
Now and then, Radio Pakistan invited her for performances, she being an accomplished artiste. She rendered her debut public concert in 1957, at Lahore Arts Council, before an elite crowd. Her relatives went wild as was expected, but music lovers feted her beyond imagination. With each recital, she generated more and more public appeal. She was considered a specialist in singing the works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. She has given such musical relevance to the ghazals of Faiz, that Bano and Faiz are apparently inseparable in popular imagination. Because of Faiz's imprisonment, and hatred of the Pakistani Government towards him, Bano roused a strong crowd of 50,000 people in Lahore by singing his passionate Urdu nazm, Hum Dekhenge. With her powerful, trained and tactile voice, she cast a mesmeric spell over the crowd.
Iqbal Bano can sing Persian ghazals with the same fluency as Urdu. She is always applauded in Iran and Afghanistan for her Persian ghazals. Similar to all races of the world, the Iranians and Afghans thronged to her shows in large numbers to hear her ghazals in their mothertongue. Once, she said in an interview, that she had a collection of 72 beautiful Persian ghazals. Before 1979, there used to be a celebration of a festival of culture called Jashn-e-Kabul every year in Afghanistan. Iqbal Bano received a warm invitation to this annual event regularly. She was known for singing a new Persian ghazal each time at that festival. The King of Afghanistan liked her recital very much. Once, on such an occasion, the king was so pleased with her ghazals that he presented her with a golden vase in appreciation of her music.
Music lovers found some notable similarities between Bano and Begum Akhtar, especially some marked resemblances in their styles of singing. Iqbal Bano does not consider the contemporary ghazals as ghazal at all. Her recitals stick to the old classical style that lays more stress on the raag purity. Basically a ghazal singer, Iqbal Bano has also sung many memorable Pakistani film songs. She has sung for famous Urdu films like Gumnaam (1954), Qatil (1955), Inteqaam (1955), Sarfarosh (1956), Ishq-e-Laila (1957), and Nagin (1959). She won the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Pride of Performance) medal in 1974 for her contributions to the world of Pakistani music.
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