Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Among Pakistan's most widely loved and best-paid voices stands Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, a Punjabi singer whose roots run deep in devotional tradition. Born in 1974 in Faisalabad into a family of qawwals and classical performers, he was steeped in Sufi song from childhood, and qawwali remains the core of his art. Alongside it he sings ghazals and lighter material, and he has also become a familiar presence as a playback singer in Hindi cinema and the Pakistani film industry.

His apprenticeship was unusually direct: he trained under his uncle, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and joined that celebrated qawwali group at fifteen, touring the United Kingdom with him in 1985. His Bollywood playback debut came with "Mann Ki Lagan" from Paap (2003). Later milestones include a 2012 UK tour that saw him performing at Wembley Arena and the Manchester Arena, and "Zaroori Tha" from Back 2 Love (2014), which reached a billion YouTube views. On Coke Studio he has appeared in five editions, and his "Afreen Afreen" with Momina Mustehsan became the first Pakistani song to pass 300 million views. His most recent appearance there was Coke Studio 2020.