Ten Favorite Zubaida Khanum Songs (and a great duet)

Posted by Richard S. on February 24, 2013
Posted in: Uncategorized. 9 Comments

I found the Pakistani singer Zubaida Khanum by following some of my favorite stars of ’40s films from India. She did singing in quite a few Noor Jehan films, and she also did playback for Swaran Lata (of Ratan fame), Rehana, and the “Lara Lappa girl,” Meena Shorey.

I may have said in my last post that Zubaida Khanum was no match for Noor Jehan, but that’s not a fair contest. Zubaida was a fine singer in her own right.

For my list, I have included only solo songs, but as a bonus, I added a duet that I just found, a women’s qawwali led by Zubaida singing with Iqbal Bano. I also love the duet that I included in the last post, but we can call that a Noor Jehan song and let Zubaida shine here without being overshadowed.

Here’s to Zubaida Khanum!











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Bonus:

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P.S. I briefly posted this as a seven-song list, but that wasn’t enough, and the list wasn’t quite right. I came up with a better list after doing some research of old posts and comments. Comments from Mr. Jinx were especially helpful!

9 comments on “Ten Favorite Zubaida Khanum Songs (and a great duet)”

  2. Thank you, Swarup. But in that form, the songs don’t seem to be playable for someone coming from here. I guess this would be the right link?

  3. That is the one. Did Sahiba Khanum too sing at some stage?
    On a different note, I have been going through some of the videos uploaded by Tom Daniel; it seems to to be some of the best stuff on YouTube. I hope that we can get a list of his deleted stuff which is posted by others.

  4. There’s a nice Wikipedia entry on Sahiba Khanum. But it’s not clear whether she actually sang in films. (Maybe someone else can illuminate us?) Though she did get into films by impressing someone with a singing performance…

    These days, apparently, she has a different career altogether. According to Wikipedia, “She is passing her life by selling samosa in one Indian restaurant in California, USA.”

    Regarding Tom’s videos, yes, it would be great to get a list together of his deleted stuff posted by others – though it might not be easy to find it all.

    I can tell you about one channel that has a number of his deleted stuff posted by another… The poster of that stuff is me. All of the uploaded film clips on my YouTube channel are videos that Tom sent me a few years ago, during one of several periods of time when YouTube had suspended him.

    Here is my uploaded video list. It does start with two audio files amateurishly put together by yours truly, but all of the videos that follow those are Tom’s:

  6. I was going a bit nuts yesterday, with too much work to be done, and a dodgy net connection anyway. Have finally managed to finish listening to each of these songs today, and liked all of them (loved some of them, too). Thanks, Richard – this was a treat. The only disappointment was that not-hery-heroic looking guy to whom Sheila Ramani sings Gaadi ko chalaana babu. Prior to this, I’ve only ever heard the song, never seen its video, so I’d imagined someone rather more dashing! ;-)

  7. Madhu, it’s great to hear that you liked this list of songs so much!

    Regarding “Gaadi Co Chalana Babu”… Here I was willing to sacrifice some of the sound quality over the last copy I posted (as I recall) because I was so happy to have found the rare film clip that goes with it. But you’ve given me a different perspective on that. :) Oh, well. ,

  8. Swarup, the paragraph that you linked to mentions how unusual it is that Farida Khanum did not sing in her own voice, since she was a great singer (and she did do a fine duet with Noor Jehan in one film, as I recall). I don’t see any reference to whether Sahiba Khanum ever sang in a film.

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