Rahat
Fateh Ali Khan has organised a tribute tour to honour the 20th death
anniversary of his uncle, the Sufi maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The sold-out
event will hold its grand finale in Dubai on December 15, reported Khaleej Times. Fans of the duo can witness an electrifying four-hour performance of their
hits.
“We started the Tribute Tour in
March and wanted to do 48 concerts to celebrate 48 years of Ustad Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan’s life. We are performing my uncle’s iconic qawwali songs. The
experience and response so far has been remarkable,” mentioned Rahat.
Qawwali has
been Nusrat’s speciality and a lot of people attend Rahat’s concerts
to hear these qawwalis. He manages to also add in a few of his Bollywood
numbers for the younger generation that comes to hear his music.
He emotionally added, “I want to add that
whatever I perform and whatever that I am, is all thanks to my uncle. No one
has contributed to the music industry the way my uncle has.”
Ustad
Nusrat is undoubtedly the greatest qawwali singer
in the world. It was due to his efforts and collaborations with various Western
artists, that qawwali became a popular genre globally. His nephew,
Rahat has carried the same legacy and garnered popularity in Bollywood.
His melodious voice in Teri
Meri, O Re Piya, Tere Mast Mast Do Nain and Jag Ghoomeya has mesmerised live audiences.
“I started learning music from Nusrat since
I was six. I would wait for him to give me the cue to start singing. He
noticed that I was very keen about singing all the time, so
he enjoyed training me as well,” shared Rahat as he reminisced his childhood
memories with Uncle Nusrat.
“For 25 years, Nusrat created a stage in his
house to celebrate his father’s death anniversary. And every year, he would
sing variations of ragas. He would improvise on these in front of other
maestros,” he added.
At the age of nine, Rahat performed for the
very first time. It was at his grandfather’s death anniversary and he the
raga he sang was loved by the maestros who were present.
On
collaborating with the qawwali king, Rahat recalls, “I remember once he was making
a very difficult composition. He asked me to collaborate with him on that song
and he loved my composition.”
Rahat also stated that his uncle had a
tremendous sense of humour and he enjoyed watching comedy shows. The
42-year-old singer also mentioned that his uncle loved working with Lata
Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. “It was his childhood dream to sing with Lata,” he
added.
The
rendition of the iconic Afreen Afreen for Coke Studio was a nervous experience for Rahat. He revealed, “I
was very scared when I was told that they are planning to recreate Afreen Afreen. But thankfully, the song turned out well and the process
of turning that qawwali into a soft song was done beautifully.”
Rahat gives the complete credit of his
success to Ustad Nusrat. He confessed, “I have learned everything about music
from my uncle. He taught me how to compose music and how to understand
others’ music as well. I have worked with music directors like Vishal
Bharadwaj, Shankar Mahadevan, Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam, and Vishal-Shekhar.
They all belong to different genres, but I share a comfort level with them all
because Nusrat taught me well.”
