Chinese singer covers Hadiqa’s Pashto song

‘Janan’ was a collaboration between herself and singer Irfan Khan

KARACHI: Be it Nescafe Basement’s cover of Roxette’s She’s Got The Looks or Amanat Ali Khan’s version of Cheb Khaled’s Aisha on Coke Studio, Pakistani musicians have covered popular songs on various instances.

But over the past few years, some international musicians have started to put an ear out for Pakistani music. Very recently, Chinese musician Hou Wei performed a cover version of Hadiqa Kiani’s Pashto song Janan (which also featured Irfan Khan). Kiani shared a video clip of the Chinese singer’s performance on her Facebook page, stating that this was proof of the fact that “music has no boundaries while cementing Janan’s spot in not only Pashto but Pakistani culture around the world.”

An admin for the artist’s official Facebook page said that the singer, apart from singing songs in Urdu, English, Pashto, has also performed a song in the Chinese language. “In 2006, Hadiqa sang a Chinese song in China for the Pak-China Friendship Anniversary. At the same show, a Chinese singer sang Hadiqa’s first major classic Boohey Barian,” commented the admin.Having said that, Kiani is not the only Pakistani pop singer to sing in Pashto. A few years back, her contemporary Fariha Pervez released a Pushto duet alongside Rahim Shah called Gul Janan.   Apart from that Saleem Javed often performs Bibi Sheerene and other popular Pushto songs in his live shows.

Kiani was last seen in action at the Ponds Miracle Women ceremony where she was inducted as a mentor to help and guide 10 other women in her respective field.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2015.

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