Noor Jehan was born on September 21, 1926. As many people know, in this blog, though I may mention birthdays now and then, the one birthday I really try never to miss is Madam Noor Jehan’s.
For this year’s Noor Jehan birthday post, here’s a nice new playlist. Once again, I am referring to one of Tom Daniel’s channels, because he just recently put this one together, basing the list mainly on the Noor Jehan songs that have earned the most views. Curiously, they come from just a few films that came out in Pakistan in the 1950s and early ’60s, but they are wonderful songs in which her voice sounds as beautiful as it does anywhere else. And in these films, Noor Jehan was still singing for herself, so the videos are beautiful to watch, too.
At the end of his list, Tom added a half-hour clip of a live Noor Jehan performance broadcast by the BBC in the early ’80s, which is actually from my mostly neglected YouTube channel (though the video was originally prepared by Tom as well, just like most of the clips over there).
And here I am going to embed the whole list, so if you like, you can keep watching the videos, one after another, without leaving this post.
By the way, as I have just remembered, the performance at the end of Tom’s playlist was also the subject of my Noor Jehan birthday post of 2016. There, in addition to the half-hour clip, I posted two separate songs from the same show, which the main clip had omitted.
If you look at my Noor Jehan post of 2015, you’ll see a list of links to my Noor Jehan posts from prior years, going back to 2009. Obviously, I have devoted a lot of time and energy to celebrating Noor Jehan, whom I can still call my favorite among singers in the history of films from both India and Pakistan.
(Actually, last year was a little different, because that post was about people covering songs that had been made famous by Noor Jehan. But I wanted to show that I am positively delighted even when other singers cover material that makes me think of Noor Jehan.)
Once again, happy birthday to the Malika-e-Tarannum, Madam Noor Jehan!
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P.S. Unfortunately, as usual, my posts from past years contain quite a few missing clips. But I intend to replace most of those very soon!