Pashto music legend Takkar to perform at Nobel ceremony

Sardar Ali Takkar to perform Ta Bibi Sheerina Ye as a tribute to Malala

PESHAWAR: We may have been cheering about the performance of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at the Nobel Prize Ceremony but now the Pashto music legend Sardar Ali Takkar has given us another reason to own the ceremony.

Takkar, who hails from the same province as Malala Yousafzai will be performing Ta Bibi Sheerina Ye on the first day of the ceremony, a song which he made as a tribute to Malala’s bravery after she was attacked by the Taliban.

On the second day, Takkar will perform the famous poem by Ghani Khan, A Zama Watan, in which Ghani Khan expressed his love for the country.

“This is the moment of pride and honour that a Pakistani and a Pashtun singer will perform at the Nobel Prize award ceremony,” Takkar told The Express Tribune.

“I will be performing Pashto songs for all the Pakistani girls out there, the language does not matter because the message to get well educated and be a part of a larger movement,” said Takkar.

Takkar had initially made Ta Bibi Sheerina Ye for a show of the same name that aired on Voice of America Radio Deewa . Initially the show was about Malala and her heroics but the later on both the show and the song became so popular that they shifted the focus of the show on girls’ education in general.

“Initially it was only the song we have specially made for the Malala but later due to its Universal message of education it become the song of every girl of Pakistan,” Behroz Khan, the writer of the song told The Express Tribune.

It was Malala Yousufzai’s personal wish that Takkar should be asked to perform at the ceremony where she herself will be awarded.