![]() ![]() “In our century there have been only one or two voices like ”, wrote the critic Geoff Dyer in 1994, “voices that rend the soul even as they soothe it.” The latter was a transcendental force who would perform sitting cross-legged on a rug and routinely bring audiences, literally, to their knees. With his numerous appearances on chatshows, judging panels and major film soundtracks, the 42-year-old has built a reputation as the subcontinent’s most popular singer.įaisalabad-born Khan comes from a family steeped in six centuries of qawaali tradition, but is best known to contemporary audiences as nephew to Nusrat. He headlined the Nobel peace prize concert two years ago, and breezily credits himself with bringing the album format back to life in his native Pakistan. In PR terms, it seems a car-crash admission Khan is on course to sell out the O2 arena this weekend for the second time, with a three-hour performance of devotional music (qawaalis), poems (ghazals) and film songs. His western audiences didn’t even understand the languages he performed in, but their responses? Mindblowing.” I can honour that, but I can’t replicate it. He was the Voice – when he sings, he’s in your spirit. “I have a fraction of the artistry he had. H ow do you work against the weight of expectation? “I can’t,” says sufi pop singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, comparing himself unfavourably to his uncle, the late Pakistani superstar Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
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