Akhtar Chanal Zahri
Encyclopedia
Akhtar Chanal Zahri is a famous Pakistan
i folk singer. He is famous for his singing in Coke Studio
season 4.
In 1964 Akhtar Chanal started taking formal singing lessons from an ustaad. In 1973 he brought regional folk to national attention after he was discovered by the Balochi Radio Station, and in 1974 Chanal’s music became popular nationwide when his song Deer Deer was first aired live on TV. Since then Akhtar Chanal has traveled all over the world, including the United States, the Netherlands and Europe for tours. In 1998 he was also awarded the Pride of Performance.
Akhtar Chanal's distinctive voice carries with it the stories of this great singer's birthplace – the sweltering fields of Balochistan, where young shepherds are raised to the tunes of regional folk songs while they work. “Where I come from, when a child is born, the only two things he knows how to do are sing and cry - music is a part of us from the very beginning.” says the 60-year-old folk singer. “The songs I hummed as a youngster watching my sheep, are embedded in my memory.” Zahri believes that every animal, field, flower and blade of grass can feel the positive energy of music.
These songs are still sung on the fields of Balochistan in Brahui, the mother tongue of historically nomadic tribes living in a narrow corridor stretching from the coast of Las Bela through Khuzdar, Kalat, Nushki to Quetta, as well as along Afghanistan’s Helmand River and in Turkestan and Sistan, Iran. With its closest linguistic neighbors being the Dravidian languages in far-away South India, Brahui - a unique language spanning the borders of Persia, South Asia and Central Asia, is today seen as vulnerable to extinction.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i folk singer. He is famous for his singing in Coke Studio
Coke Studio
Coke Studio is a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. Although it is adapted from the original Brazilian show named Estúdio Coca-Cola, it is fundamentally different from the original version where the show was a concert style show whereas the Pakistani version records its...
season 4.
In 1964 Akhtar Chanal started taking formal singing lessons from an ustaad. In 1973 he brought regional folk to national attention after he was discovered by the Balochi Radio Station, and in 1974 Chanal’s music became popular nationwide when his song Deer Deer was first aired live on TV. Since then Akhtar Chanal has traveled all over the world, including the United States, the Netherlands and Europe for tours. In 1998 he was also awarded the Pride of Performance.
Akhtar Chanal's distinctive voice carries with it the stories of this great singer's birthplace – the sweltering fields of Balochistan, where young shepherds are raised to the tunes of regional folk songs while they work. “Where I come from, when a child is born, the only two things he knows how to do are sing and cry - music is a part of us from the very beginning.” says the 60-year-old folk singer. “The songs I hummed as a youngster watching my sheep, are embedded in my memory.” Zahri believes that every animal, field, flower and blade of grass can feel the positive energy of music.
These songs are still sung on the fields of Balochistan in Brahui, the mother tongue of historically nomadic tribes living in a narrow corridor stretching from the coast of Las Bela through Khuzdar, Kalat, Nushki to Quetta, as well as along Afghanistan’s Helmand River and in Turkestan and Sistan, Iran. With its closest linguistic neighbors being the Dravidian languages in far-away South India, Brahui - a unique language spanning the borders of Persia, South Asia and Central Asia, is today seen as vulnerable to extinction.
External links
- Akhtar Chanal Zahri at FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Akhtar Chanal Zahri at Coke StudioCoke StudioCoke Studio is a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. Although it is adapted from the original Brazilian show named Estúdio Coca-Cola, it is fundamentally different from the original version where the show was a concert style show whereas the Pakistani version records its...