Great Singer Mohammad Rafi

Rafi was born the youngest of six sons of Hajji Ali Mohammad at Kotla Sultan Singh (or Kotla Sultanpur), a town near Amritsar in Punjab (British India). Rafi, whose nickname was Pheeko, started singing by imitating chants of a fakir in his village.In 1935-36, Rafi's father shifted to Lahore, and the rest of the family followed later. Rafi's family owned a men's salon in Lahore's Noor Mohalla.It was his brother-in-law Mohammed Hameed who spotted the talent in Rafi and encouraged him. Rafi learnt classical music from maestros Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Firoze Nizami.
Rafi's first public performance came at the age of 13, when he was allowed to sing at a concert featuring the legendary K. L. Saigal. In 1942, Rafi, under Shyam Sunder, made his debut as a playback singer in the duet "Soniye nee, Heeriye nee" with Zeenat Begum in the Punjabi film Gul Baloch (the film was released in 1944). In that same year, Rafi was invited by All India Radio Lahore station to sing for them.

Altaf Raja

Born in 1967 at Nagpur to professional Qawwals, Altaf Raja began musical training at the age of 15. After his voice training, he began winning awards at various competitions. And finally in 1997, Venus gave him the much-deserved break and Altaf made history with his debut album "Tum To Thehre Pardesi". Since then, he has brought at least seven albums. He has also been linked with the Asian Academy of Film & Television. His songs are popular for both their lyrics and for his unique voice.
Date of Birth: 14 October 1967
Place of Birth: Nagpur, Maharashtra
Godfather: Late Mohd. Shafi Niyazi
Music Teachers: Iqbal Khan, Prakash Sharma, Pt. Govind Prasad Jaipurwala & Late Mohd. Shafi Niyazi.
Mother: Rani Roop Lata
Father: Ibrahim Iqbal
First Album: Tum To Thehre Pardesi

Sir Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

SirNusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Urdu: نصرت فتح علی خان, October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997), was a Punjabi musician from Pakistan, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis . He featured in Time magazine's 2006 list of 'Asian Heroes'.

Sir Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born on October 13, 1948 in the city of Faisalabad, Pakistan. He was the fifth child and first son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Khan's family, which included his four older sisters and his younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan grew up in central Lyallpur. In 1979, Khan married his first cousin, Naheed (the daughter of Fateh Ali Khan's brother, Salamat Ali Khan); they had one daughter, Nida.
Khan began by learning to play tabla alongside his father before progressing to learn Raag Vidya and Bolbandish. He then went on to learn to sing within the classical framework of khayal. Khan's training with his father was cut short when his father died in 1964, leaving Khan's paternal uncles, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, to complete his training.
His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his father, known as chehlum, which took place forty days after his father's death.
In 1971, after the death of Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, Khan, became the official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party.
Khan's first public performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Nusrat's sargam improvisations.
Early in his career, Khan was signed up by Oriental Star Agencies of Birmingham UK to their Star Cassette Label. OSA sponsored regular concert tours by Nusrat to the U.K. from the early '80s onwards, and released much of this live material on cassette, CD, videotape and DVD.

The composition of Nusrat's party changed over the twenty-six years that he led the party. Listed below is a snapshot of the party, circa 1983:
Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan: Nusrat's first cousin, vocals
Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan: Nusrat's brother, vocals and lead harmonium
Rehmat Ali: vocals and second harmonium
Maqsood Hussain: vocals
Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Nusrat's nephew & pupil, vocals
Dildar Hussain: percussion
Majawar Abbas: mandolin and guitar/chorus, handclapping
Mohammed Iqbal Naqvi: secretary of the party, chorus, handclapping
Asad Ali: chorus, handclapping Nusrat's cousin
Ghulam Farid: chorus, handclapping
Kaukab Ali: chorus, handclapping

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, (born Bryan Guy Adams on November 5, 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter and photographer. Adams was first nominated at the 28th Grammy Awards for Reckless and "It's Only Love" and won the Grammy and in 1992 won the award for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media". He has won numerous Junos, MTV, ASCAP, American Music and Ivor Novello awards. He has also been awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world. Adams was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998 and in April 2006, he was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. He was nominated for his fifth Golden Globe in 2007 for songwriting on the film Bobby which was sung by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, and has been nominated three times for Academy Awards for writing music in film.

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers (1964–1974) and Bob Marley & The Wailers (1974–1981). Marley remains the most widely known revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.

Marley's best known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, together with The Wailers, "Three Little Birds",as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album, Legend (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, being 10 times Platinum (Diamond) in the U.S., and selling 20 million copies worldwide.

Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup. Stewart, deemed unsuitable as a teen idol, was removed from the official lineup in 1963 but continued to work with the band as road manager and keyboardist until his death in 1985.
Early in the band's history Jagger and Richards formed a songwriting partnership and gradually took over leadership of the band from the increasingly troubled and erratic Jones. At first the group recorded mainly covers of American blues and R&B songs, but since the 1966 album Aftermath, their releases have mainly featured Jagger/Richards songs. Mick Taylor replaced an incapacitated Jones shortly before Jones's death in 1969. Taylor quit in 1974, and was replaced in 1975 by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood, who has remained with the band ever since. Wyman left the Rolling Stones in 1992; bassist Darryl Jones, who is not an official band member, has worked with the group since 1994.
First popular in the UK and Europe, The Rolling Stones came to the US during the early 1960s "British Invasion". The Rolling Stones have released 22 studio albums in the UK (24 in the US), eight concert albums (nine in the US) and numerous compilations; and have album sales estimated at more than 200 million worldwide.Sticky Fingers (1971) began a string of eight consecutive studio albums that charted at number one in the United States. Their latest album, A Bigger Bang, was released in 2005. In 1989 The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2004 they were ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band, formed by Mark Knopfler (vocals and lead guitar), his younger brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion), and managed by Ed Bicknell, active between 1977 and 1995. Although the band was formed in an era when punk rock was at the forefront, Dire Straits played a more conventional style, albeit with a stripped-down sound that appealed to audiences weary of the overproduced stadium rock of the 1970s.In their early days, Mark and David requested that pub owners turn down their sound so that patrons could converse while the band played, an indication of their unassuming demeanor. Despite this oddly self-effacing approach to rock and roll, Dire Straits soon became hugely successful, with their first album going multi-platinum globally.
Throughout the band's career Mark Knopfler was the songwriter and driving force behind the group. The band's best-known songs include "Sultans of Swing", "Romeo and Juliet", "Tunnel of Love", "Telegraph Road", "Private Investigations", "Money for Nothing", "Walk of Life", "So Far Away", "Brothers in Arms", "On Every Street" and "Calling Elvis". Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date.