Country music

Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali finds a new groove

Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali finds a new groove
It’s a sign of how big a market India is for voices from Pakistan that Shafqat Amanat Ali, formerly of the band Fuzon, is now ready to release his first solo album Tabeer in India even before it launches back home. Ali is the voice of such recent hits as Mitwa from Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Ye hausla from Dor—one among many Pakistani singers who have added both verve and soul to the Indian music scene. “Tabeer means fulfilment of dreams. This album is just that. I’ve sung tunes that I have always wished to sing,” says Ali, who first surfaced as the vocalist for Fuzon and belted out hits such as Aankhon ke saagar.

After the band split in 2004, Ali plunged into Bollywood where his solo career took off with some of the biggies of the industry. “Bollywood has been a wonderful journey. I have been lucky to have started with the best in the industry like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Salim-Suleiman,” he says. Ali has also sung for the Sajid-Wajid duo in forthcoming films like Hello, Aashayein and Zindagi Tere Naam.

From the Patiala gharana of classical music, Ali began singing at the age of four and over the years has drawn inspiration from the likes of Ghulam Ali and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder. “I’m highly inspired by Sufi music and it’s lines like Khairheyan de naal from Pakistani singer Tufail Niazi’s original folk track that led me to pen and compose the song Main nai jaana in the album,” he says. But how are his compositions different from what he did when he was with Fuzon? “The music I make doesn’t have rock tones any more. I like sounds that relate to humanity, like Sufi music,” he says.

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And while a plethora of Pakistani musicians have been crossing over to this side, Lahore-based Ali feels the music in Pakistan is not so different—except, of course, for Bollywood. “It’s such a huge industry. That is the platform that’s missing in Pakistan. Apart from that, the music and the culture are the same,” he says.

Ali is in talks with AR Rahman for a song in the composer’s future projects, something he’s obviously excited about. “I’m hopeful of working with him (Rahman),” he says. As Tabeer reaches his homeland in the coming months, he is already preparing the material for his second innings as an indie artist. “There are melodies that I stopped working on when Fuzon disbanded. I’m going to resume working on them and get into the studios to record my second album soon,” he says.