Naheed Akhtar (also spelled Nahid Akhtar; born 26 September 1956) is a Pakistani playback singer. She is tagged as the "Nightingale of Pakistan". She was the top Lollywood playback singer during the second half of the 1970s and 80s. She is one of the most popular and successful singers of Pakistan. She won 3 Nigar Awards and a Pride of Performance in 2007.

Early life and family

Akhtar was born on September 26, 1956, in Multan, Punjab. She has 3 sisters and 4 brothers. A sister of hers, Hameeda Akhtar, was also a singer.

Singing career

Nahid's career began in 1970 when she sang a duet with Khalid Asghar in "Raag Malhar" at Radio Pakistan Multan. She has recorded songs in a range of styles, including Pakistani film music, pop, Ghazal, traditional Pakistani classical music, Punjabi folk songs, Qawwalis, Naat & Hamds and others. She was first discovered for films in the mid-1970s by veteran music director M. Ashraf who pursued her to sing in films. She had no well-known person as ustad (teacher) to train her musically but music director M. Ashraf played a key role in grooming her talent. Her inaugural film "Nanha Farishta" was released in 1974 and in the same year she sang songs in film Shama (1974). Initially it was said in the film circles that she was introduced to fill the vacuum of Runa Laila who had migrated to Bangladesh. But later people realized that she had her own original singing style. She was active in the Pakistani film industry all the way through the 1980s. As a playback singer, Naheed has given her voice to 590 songs in 436 Urdu and Punjabi films.

Personal life

Nahid left singing in 1986. Later, she married a journalist Asif Ali Pota in 1994. Both had a daughter and a son together. Pota died of cardiac arrest in 2017.

Later appearances

Naheed Akhtar made an appearance on stage in 2013, after repeated requests of the management of a TV show, where active and popular singers like Shabnam Majeed and Saima Jahan sang her songs to pay tribute to her. She stays busy with her family and children, and, is not actively pursuing a singing career.

Popular songs

A list of Nahid's popular songs includes:

Film

Television

Radio

Television programmes

Awards and honors