1. Hadiqa Kiani is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, actress, and philanthropist.
88 Facts About Hadiqa Kiani
1. 2.
Hadiqa Kiani has received numerous local and international awards and has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and The Kennedy Center.
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In 2006, Kiani received the fourth-highest Pakistan civilian award, the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, for her contributions to the field of music.
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In 2016, Hadiqa Kiani was titled as "Pakistan's Most Powerful and Influential Women" by the country's leading news group, Jang Group of Newspapers, as part of their "Power" edition.
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Hadiqa Kiani was born in Rawalpindi as the youngest of three siblings.
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Hadiqa Kiani's father died when she was three years old.
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Hadiqa Kiani received early education in music from her teacher, Nargis Naheed.
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Hadiqa Kiani was a part of Sohail Rana's children's program Rang Barangi Dunya, a weekly musical on PTV.
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Hadiqa Kiani went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Kinnaird College for Women University and her Masters in Psychology from the Government College University in Lahore.
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Hadiqa Kiani appeared as a VJ for a music charts program called Video Junction on NTM.
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Hadiqa Kiani began to sing songs as a playback singer for movies in the early 90s, most notably was the hit Pakistani movie called Sargam, which was starring and being composed by Adnan Sami Khan.
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In 1995, Hadiqa Kiani received the "NTM Viewer's choice award" for the Best Female Singer of Pakistan.
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Hadiqa Kiani's increasing popularity was further highlighted in January 1997, when Kiani became the first Asian singer to perform at the British National Lottery Live on BBC One.
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Hadiqa Kiani is the first mainstream Pakistani singer to ever perform in Hong Kong.
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Hadiqa Kiani was the second international female artist in the world to be signed, the first being Gloria Estefan.
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In 1998, Hadiqa Kiani recorded the official theme song for the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
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Amidst the World Cup recording, Hadiqa Kiani released her second album, titled Roshni.
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Hadiqa Kiani is just one of two female singers in the entire list.
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Hadiqa Kiani's success led to her being signed by Unilever for celebrity endorsement of Lipton in 2001.
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Hadiqa Kiani returned to promote the album in June 2003, almost 10 months after she'd released "Yaad Sajan" with a new single "Ranjhan" and several stage performances and tours around the country.
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Hadiqa Kiani then released other singles off the album throughout 2003 and 2004.
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In "Jogi Bun Kay Aa" Hadiqa Kiani plays various women's roles, including a traditional Japanese, an Arab, and a tribal woman.
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Hadiqa Kiani played a vampire in her video for "Mahi" which was directed by top director Asim Raza.
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Shortly after the release of Rung, Hadiqa Kiani was mentioned in "Pakistani Pop's 10 most Influential Acts Ever", in which she was ranked ninth.
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Hadiqa Kiani is one of just two female singers in the list, the other being Nazia Hassan.
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Several years after the release of Rung, leading Indian Sufi singer "Harshdeep Kaur" covered Hadiqa Kiani's self composed "Jogi Bun Kay Aa" on a leading Indian television show.
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In 2007, Hadiqa Kiani released her fourth studio album, Rough Cut, a collaboration with Aamir Zaki.
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Hadiqa Kiani was nominated for Best Female Singer in the same award show.
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In June 2009, Hadiqa Kiani switched record labels to Fire Records and released her fifth studio album, titled Aasmaan.
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The official video of "Sohnya" premiered a day before Hadiqa Kiani released the album.
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In February 2010, Hadiqa Kiani released "Janan", for which she collaborated with relatively unknown Pashto singer Irfan Khan.
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The song has become Hadiqa Kiani's biggest hit till date and some say that it has even topped the popularity of "Boohey Barian".
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Some Pakhtoons even started to call her "Hadiqa Pathani", Kiani is credited with bringing back a trend in Pakistan of embracing Pashto culture, girls started to wear Pashto style dresses imitating Kiani's looks on the red carpet and more mainstream singers began singing in the local language.
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Hadiqa Kiani being a Punjabi, singing a Pashto song and appealing to not only Pakistani Pashto audiences, but to audiences worldwide.
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Hadiqa Kiani's "Janan" has been covered by many international singers, most noticeably by the Chinese singer Hou Wei at the grand South Asia Expo in 2014.
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Hadiqa Kiani's style led her to be the muse for high street brands such as Generation and Bonanza and couturiers like Ali Xeeshan.
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In 1995, Hadiqa Kiani signed a string of Pakistani films as a playback singer, most notably the Adnan Sami Khan film Sargam.
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Sargam went on to win various awards for Hadiqa Kiani, including that of "Best Female Playback Singer" at the prestigious Nigar Awards.
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Since Sargam however, Hadiqa Kiani has been mostly absent from playback singing in Pakistan.
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In 2006, Hadiqa Kiani was featured on UK based producer Khiza's album "Loyal To The Game"'s lead single, "Mehr Ma".
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In May 2012, Hadiqa Kiani appeared on the 5th season of Rohail Hyatt's Coke Studio.
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In 2018, Hadiqa Kiani joined the cast of 3 Bahadur: Rise of the Warriors for the title song.
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Apart from studio recordings, in 2005 Hadiqa Kiani was appointed by the government of Pakistan as an official representative of the country.
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On 11 August 2005, Hadiqa Kiani performed in Nagoya for the Prime Minister of Japan Mr Junichiro Koizumi.
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Hadiqa Kiani then performed in Toronto on 14 August 2005 by request of The Pakistani Consulate.
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Hadiqa Kiani closed the month of August with a performance at the Pakistan Parade in New York on 28 August 2005.
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On 2 October 2005, Hadiqa Kiani performed in Malaysia at the newly built Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur downtown.
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Hadiqa Kiani sang a song in Malay to show respect to the Malaysian people.
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Hadiqa Kiani represented Pakistan on the 25th Anniversary of the Organization of Islamic Conference Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in Turkey.
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Hadiqa Kiani performed at the AKM Opera House on 23 November 2005.
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Hadiqa Kiani told the audience that as Turkey stood beside Pakistan in good and bad times, she wanted to convey the love of Pakistani people for the Turks.
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Hadiqa Kiani told the audience that she visited Turkey as a child star in 80s and represented Pakistan in the International Children's Festival in Turkey so she had beautiful childhood memories associated with Turkey.
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Hadiqa Kiani performed in China for the Chinese Premier on 21 February 2006.
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Hadiqa Kiani is extremely talented and should sing here more.
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Hadiqa Kiani performed as per the request of former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush on 21 September 2006 at The Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC She closed the year by performing for Prince Charles of the United Kingdom and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall on 30 October 2006, and again in China for the Chinese president on 23 November 2006.
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On 19 May 2007, Hadiqa Kiani performed at Dead Sea in Jordan for 28 Heads of States at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa.
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Hadiqa Kiani's performance took place on the second day of the three-day event while American singer Lionel Richie performed the first day.
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Hadiqa Kiani was the only singer who sang completely live that day.
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Hadiqa Kiani was part of closing the show with the popular patriotic song "Jeevay Pakistan" alongside Ali Zafar.
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Hadiqa Kiani has continued performing throughout Pakistan for various companies, including Pepsi and Samsung.
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In 2022, Hadiqa Kiani took the stage at Expo 2020 Dubai at the DEC Arena to represent Pakistan to a sold-out crowd.
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In March 2007, Hadiqa Kiani was one of the many artists featured in a widely popular track called "Yeh Hum Naheen".
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The song conveys an anti-terrorism sentiment in the music video and supported the anti-terrorism campaign, Yeh hum naheen, which Hadiqa Kiani is heavily involved with.
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Hadiqa Kiani appeared in Geo TV's telethon "Pukaar" along with Pop star Ali Zafar to appeal for donations.
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In collaboration with Pakistan Army, Hadiqa Kiani made visits to Multan Relief Camp, Basti Kalraywala, Muzaffarabad and other flood hit areas, personally distributing goods to the affectees.
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On 8 November 2010, Hadiqa Kiani was appointed United Nations Development Programme Goodwill ambassador after being recognized for her individual philanthropic efforts.
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Later that month Hadiqa Kiani stood up again to voice her views on women in leadership at the Women Leadership Summit 2015 with then wife of former cricketer Imran Khan, Reham Khan and various other women who had achieved success in their respective fields including Muniba Mazari and Nadia Jamil.
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Hadiqa Kiani has campaigned and been the ambassador for Shaukat Khanum, Oxfam International, and since 2010 the United Nations.
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In November 2015 it was announced that Hadiqa Kiani would speak at TEDXKinnaird on the role of women in Pakistani society.
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Hadiqa Kiani gained attention when criticizing actor Yasir Hussain at the 5th annual Hum TV Awards for joking about child molestation.
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In July 2017, Hadiqa Kiani teamed up with Nestle to introduce socially responsible initiatives in Pakistan regarding early childhood development.
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Hadiqa Kiani led her humanitarian efforts through the flood relief campaign and provided food, tents and medical supplies including anti-snake venoms in flood-affected areas.
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Hadiqa Kiani continued visiting the affected regions in the provinces of Balochistan and Punjab providing comfort and relief to the victims of climate disaster.
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In January 2021, Hadiqa Kiani revealed that she will make her acting debut alongside Nauman Ijaz, Sania Saeed and Iqra Aziz in Hum TV's drama Raqeeb Se.
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The drama was written by Bee Gul and directed by Kashif Nisar while Hadiqa Kiani sang and produced the OST written by her mother, Khawar Hadiqa Kiani.
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Hadiqa Kiani starred as the protagionist in the drama, portraying a battered mother named Sakina, and won critical praise for the performance.
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In March 2006, Hadiqa Kiani was presented with the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan, one of the highest civil awards of the country, in acknowledgement of her services in the field of music and for shining an encouraging light on the country for over a decade.
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In 2015, Hadiqa Kiani was declared as one of "Pakistan's Most Powerful and Influential Women" of all time by The News International under the Jang Group umbrella.
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The "Pop Queen" of Pakistan debuted herself as a Qawwali artist to positive feedback Upon the end of the Mela, Hadiqa Kiani announced that she would be working on her sixth studio album titled Wajd.
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In December 2021, Hadiqa Kiani was listed as one of the Top Global Asian Celebrities by Eastern Eye, a UK publication.
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Hadiqa Kiani joined the list with Riz Ahmed, Mindy Kaling and Atif Aslam.
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In May 2022, Hadiqa Kiani was honoured by the global music streaming platform Spotify with a digital billboard in Times Square in New York City for her contribution to the global music industry and in support of her seventh album titled VASL.
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Hadiqa Kiani's career has evolved remarkably over the past three decades; always staying true to herself, she has given pre-eminent music to the industry in her soulful voice.
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Hadiqa Kiani continues to serve as a role model for young women in Pakistan, artists Arooj Aftab, Shae Gill and Momina Mustehsan have cited Hadiqa Kiani as an inspiration for their musical ambitions and praised her artistry.
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In December 2024, Hadiqa Kiani was included on the BBC's 100 Women list.
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Hadiqa Kiani was included for her contributions to pop music and her dedication to philanthropic efforts during the 2022 floods.
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Hadiqa Kiani was the sole caretaker of her mother, Khawar Hadiqa Kiani, who was paralyzed since 2006 and passed away on 14 October 2022.
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Hadiqa Kiani adopted her son, Naad-e-Ali, in 2005 from the Edhi Foundation after the 2005 earthquake.