Tuesday, August 27, 2013
ADNAN SAMI is a singer, musician, pianist,actor
and composer with a command on Indian and Western Classical/
Semi-Classical notes, Jazz, Rock & Pop music. Born to Naureen and Arshad
Sami Khan inLondon, United Kingdom. He is a Canadian citizen of Pakistani and
Indian ancestry and currently works and lives in Mumbai,India. Having
received his formal training in Indian Classical music from the
famous Santoor Maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, his music merges
Asian and Western music styles and instrumentation. His career has ranged
from Classical Music(Indian and Western) to Jazz to modern Pop-Rock.
Adnan’s first single was released in 1986 with an English smash
hit single in the Middle East which went straight to No.1 position in its first
week entry onto the music charts of the region with a song he wrote &
recorded in his voice for the United Nations & UNICEF called “Run for his
life”. This was followed by 3 more No. 1s, “Talk To Me”, “Get Out Of My
Face!”&“You’re My Best Kept Secret”.
His first formal album was an Indian classical album on the piano
accompanied by tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1989 called “The
One & Only”. He had his first vocal solo album “Raag Time” in 1991. The
song from his album "Teri Yaad" was the title track of his first
album which became a huge hit in Pakistan.
In 1994, he composed music for a film for the first time. The
Pakistani film, in which Adnan was the lead actor and famous Indian playback
singer Asha Bhosle did the playback, “Sargam (1995 film)” was a
blockbuster.It was also the first time that an Indian playback singer was
featured in an album in Pakistan. However, the authorities banned Asha's voice
from the soundtrack in the actual film, which disappointed Adnan. He then had
to re-record the songs with Hadiqa Kiyani. Asha’s voice was retained
however in the CDs & records. Till date Sargam is the only film Adnan acted
in and is the biggest selling album of all time in Pakistan. The film and its
soundtrack continue to be a milestone for Pakistan’s film & musical industry.
In 2000,
Asha Bhosle teamed up again with him to release a collection of love songs
named “Kabhi to Nazar Milao” in India. The music was also composed by
Adnan. The album became an instant blockbuster and had
topped the Indipop charts for the most of 2001 &
2002. According to Business Week magazine, the album sold 4
million copies in India alone.
Two songs
from the album, Kabhi To Nazar Milao, which featured model Aditi
Gowitrikar and Lift Karaa De featuring the popular Indian actor Govinda were
very popular at that time. The videos were shot by Anil Mehta who has shot
popular Hindi films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Lagaan. After
the success of that album, Magnasound and Adnan released an album named “Always
Yours” which was a remix version of numbers from that album.
He soon became a sensation, which led Hindi filmmaker Boney Kapoor
to invite him to give music for his film. This was the beginning for him
to compose and sing for Hindi films and even for the top Hindi film producers
of the time like Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai etc. Because of the popularity of
his music videos and live performances, he started getting acting offers at the
same time.
The song,
"Tu Sirf Mera Mehboob", from Hindi film, Ajnabee (2001) by Adnan had
become a rage and was a superhit. Screen
Magazine called him the pop personality of the year in 2001.
In 2002, Pepsi Foods made Adnan its brand
ambassador for India, a contract which involved hosting a series of live
music concerts across cities. Adnan featured in numerous ads for Pepsi
products. He is the only artiste in all of Asia & Europe who has
endorsed Pepsi Cola ‘&’ Coca-Cola together.
According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, no
Pakistani artist has ever managed to gain as much popularity in India as Adnan
has. According to an article in the Indian newspaper The Times of
India, Adnan is the most successful face in non-film music in India.
His
second studio album, “Tera Chehra”, which was released in October 2002 to
critical eulogies even as his first album was still selling. The music
videos for this album were shot by Binod Pradhan who has shot the
popular Hindi film Devdas, directed by Bela Sehgal. The album
features popular Bollywood stars Rani Mukerji in the title
track, Amitabh Bachchan in the track "Kabhi Nahi", who also
sang the duet with Adnan. Actress Mahima Chaudhry was also seen
in another song. The title track was written by famous Hindi movie lyricist Sameer. According
to the Screen Magazine, it was the only successful pop album of the
year.
“Tera Chehra” had further broken sale records by becoming the
biggest selling album of 2002 (including film soundtracks) in India and
continued its No.1 position in 2003 and the biggest selling Indian album of all
time (including film soundtracks) in U.S.A and Canada. The album had been in
the No. 1 position in all the music charts of India from the time of its
release in September 2002 and continued to do so for over a year all over India
thus beating his debut album’s No.1 record set earlier by himself.
Hindi film Saathiya (2002) brought him the
opportunity to work with maestro A. R. Rahman in the form of
"Aye Udi Udi", which he was looking forward to. According to Screen
Magazine, the song was the highlight of the album. Rediff.com called
him the "Reigning King of Indipop" in early 2003 based on the
sales of his albums in the past two years.
His most successful albums have been Kabhi To Nazar Milao (with Asha
Bhosle) and Tera Chehra, and his music videos usually have had
a host of Bollywood stars in them, including Namrata Shirodkar ("Bheegi
Bheegi Raat"), Mahima Chaudhry, Raveena Tandon, Rani Mukerji ("Tera
Chehra"), Govinda, Fardeen Khan, Amisha Patel ("O
Meri Jaan"), Bhumika Chawla ("Maahiya"), Dia
Mirza ("Pal Do Pal") and the most famous, Amitabh Bachchan (Kabhi
Nahi).
To acknowledge his great achievement in sales, the premier music
TV channel MTV honoured him by awarding him a special award called the "Breakthrough
Artiste of the Year" - An award especially instituted for this achievement
of which Adnan Sami is the first recipient.
Since 2003, he has sung for a few Tamil movies like Boys, Aaytha
Ezhuthu composed by A.R. Rahman. The songs, "Boom Boom"
from Boys and "Nenjamellam Kadhal" fromAayitha
Ezhuthu, were hits. He also sang for the Tamil and Telugu versions
besides the Hindi version of songs from the movie Yuva (2004) whose
music was also composed by A. R. Rahman. Besides Rahman, he also worked
together with composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, and sung hit Tamil songs
"Oh Intha Kadhal" from Satham Podathey and
"OruKal" from Siva Manasula Sakthi, which got very popular and
widely noticed. He sang the song "Chanchadi Adi Urang Nee" in
the Malayalam movie called Makalkku. He has also sung for a Kannada
film. His first Kannada song, "Don't Worry Madabeda" for
the film Super Star starring Upendra was a big hit. He has also worked with
music composers Devi Sri Prasad and M. M. Keeravani and sang songs in Telugu
films Varsham, Chatrapathi, Shankar Dada MBBS and 100% Love.
In 2006,
he took a sabbatical and reportedly lost over 160 kg to make a
comeback in April 2007 with a new smash hit album “Kisi Din”. In 2007, he sang
the soundtrack "Dil Kya Kare" from the hit Hindi film Salaam-e-Ishq:
A Tribute to Love and “Noor-e-Khuda” from My Name Is Khan to
name a few. He has composed film music for several other Hindi films including Lucky:
No Time for Love, Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke, Dhamaal, 1920 (film), Chance
Pe Dance, Mumbai Salsa, Khubsoorat, Sadiyaan & Shaurya and
many more.
As a classical concert pianist, Adnan Sami has had the honour of
giving "solo" Royal Command Performances before such Royalty as
the King of Sweden and King Hussein of Jordan. He has also
performed for Heads of State and Governments such as President Mitterrand of
France, President of the United Arab Emirates, President and Prime
Minister of India, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, President
and Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, Prime
Minister of Sweden and Princess Christina of Sweden. Apart from this,
Adnan has performed for prestigious music festivals to sold-out stadiums of his
solo concert tours all over the world in over forty countries.
Adnan Sami had written a song for India to cheer the Indian
Cricket team during the World Cup Cricket 2003, which became immensely popular
all over the nation. The video of this song captures the nationalistic spirit
of competition depicting Adnan performing with the Indian Cricket Team along
with guest appearances from Indian film stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek
Bachchan, Fardeen Khan and Kareena Kapoor.
His work has associated him with the greatest names from the
Indian Film and Music Industry ranging from Lata Mangeshkar, Dev
Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Asha Bhosle, Shah
Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Rajesh Roshan, A. R.
Rahman, Anu Malik, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Sameer, Subhash
Ghai, Mani Ratnam, Rakesh Roshan, Feroz Khan to Pandit
Jasraj, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit
Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ustad Sultan Khan and Ustad
Zakir Hussain amongst many others.
On 15 December 2002, B.B.C. World Service celebrated 70
years of broadcasting by organizing a worldwide live concert with artistes
representing different parts of the world who performed before a global
audience via satellite; from India, Adnan was chosen by B.B.C; TRP feedback
reflected that the maximum response globally was given to his performance.
In the summer of 2003, Adnan achieved the distinction of becoming
the only artiste from the entire Asian region to have sold out Wembley Stadium
in London for two nights in a row- a feat which has won him a place in the
prestigious Limca Book of World Records (Asia's equivalent to the
West's "Guinness Book of World records"). In the years 2005, 2008
& 2012 he went onto repeat the same achievement by playing two sold-out
concerts, every time, each of these respective years at Wembley Stadium, London,
yet again.
In 2010, Adnan received the prestigious “LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD” from the Prime Minister of Pakistan at a ceremony by Pakistan
Television.
In 2011, Adnan was bestowed with a very distinguished honour, the
“GLORY OF INDIA” Award, by the Government of India. Recently the world famous ‘Wonder
of the World’the Taj Mahal completed its 350 years of existence. In order
to mark this historic occasion, the Government of India organized a year long
festivities which culminated by a once in a life time solo concert performance
by Adnan on the final Grand finale night in front of the Taj Mahal. After
this performance, the Indian media dubbed Adnan as the " Sultan Of
Music"!
Adnan hosted the Indian version of the American music game show “Don't
Forget the Lyrics!” called “Bol Baby Bol” on the Star TV network in 2008. Prior
to that in 2005, Adnan was the sole jury for the singing competition program on
Channel [V] called “Super Singer”. In 2011, Adnan returned as a judge on the
singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, which became
popular world-wide.
Adnan was
first married to actress Zeba Bakhtiar (her
second marriage) in 1993 from whom he has a son Azaan Sami Khan. They
divorced after 3 years.
In 2001,
Adnan married Dubai based Arab Sabah Galadari and it
was her second marriage as well. This relationship quit after a
year-and-a-half. It was reported in the media that Sabah left him because
he was obese.
In 2004, Sami revealed himself as a huge fan of S. D. Burman and R.D.
Burman
In 2005, Adnan suffered from lymphoedema and developed
an abscess in the knee. He was in intensive care, had to undergo a risky
surgery and was in bed for three months at Cromwell Hospital in London.
In June 2006, Adnan weighed 230 kg (506 lb) and
according to him, his doctor said he was giving him just six months to live. By
diet, exercise and will-power, Adnan lost 145 kg (319 lb) weight in
16 months.
In 2008,
Adnan's wife Sabah returned to Mumbai remarried and began staying with Adnan but the
marriage only lasted for a year after which Sabah filed for divorce. In 2009,
Adnan suffered the biggest blow of his life when he lost his father to
pancreatic cancer. He was very close to him. His father was an extremely
supportive & influential force in his life for shaping him as a musician.
Adnan married for the third time on 29 January 2010, with an
Afghan origin German woman, Roya Faryabi, the daughter of a retired
diplomat & Army General. According to media, Adnan first met Roya in India
and proposed to her after some time, while Roya says that she always liked
Adnan and he is the best match for her.
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