About: Atif Aslam

Atif Aslam (Urdu: عاطف اسلم, born March 12, 1983) is a Pakistani pop singer. He was born in Wazirabad and educated in Lahore and Rawalpindi. He is well-known in the subcontinent and with ex-pats for Pakistani song's Aadat, Woh Lamhe, and Meri Kahani, and Bollywood hit's Doorie, Pehli Nazar Mein and Tere Bin. He is the former lead singer of Jal.


Early life

Atif's kindergarten started in Model town Lahore at Kimberley Hall School. His first stage manifestation was in a fancy dress show at his school when he was in 1st grade, where he performed as Imran Khan 'Captain of the Pakistani Cricket Team'. Since then cricket was a passion for him. At that time he did not listen to any particular kind of songs.

At the age of 9, he moved to Norway where he studied at Saint Paul's School. Atif came back to Lahore in 1995 where he continued his studies in Divisional Public School (DPS), Model Town, Lahore. He was selected in his school cricket team as a bowler. Atif cleared his 10th grade in 14 years of age with a distinctive edge that he has always been the youngest boy in the class because of his double promotions while he was in Kimberley Hall. During this period he was putting his best efforts into becoming a professional cricketer. He practiced at the nets at Shapes club in Lahore where Imran Khan would give him tips on bowling. He passed out of DPS after completing his school ending matriculation exams. He further continued his education from Fizzia Air Force College (Lahore) where he completed his ICS with the class of 2001. He also had a brief stint by painting guests visiting the 5-star Pearl Continental Hotel in Bhurban.

Music career

Jal

One day he was singing to his guy friends at the college canteen. His friends urged him to participate in the singing competition on Independence Day celebrations at PAF College Lahore and Sargodha in 1998. He performed there and won the competition.

His hobby of singing continued with him entering the singing competition of his college. There were a total of 3 participants. The media team entered Atif's name in the competition at the eleventh hour. He won the competition by singing the hit number Duur of Strings. He kept on winning these competitions every semester until he announced that he will no longer participate in them so that someone else can also win the competition.

He met Goher, a guitarist and future Jal bandmate, at his college. Together they practised and started doing mini-concerts for their friends whether they wanted to hear them play or not. Atif used to perform Junoon and Strings songs at these concerts. They started performing in their college, McDonalds, Uncle Bubba's Rabba Dabba and other restaurants. Thus began the original line up of Jal.

Jal recorded the song Aadat at Mekal Hassan's Studio. The song became popular on different musical websites in Pakistan. The song was also being on aired on major Radio channels of Pakistan like City FM 89, FM 100, Mast FM 103, FM 105 etc. The video for this song was released on Ary The Music and then it was played on almost all the channels.


Controversy

After the release of the song "Aadat" by Jal, there were disputes within the band about Atif's brother being the band's manager. At this point Atif broke off from the band to do his own solo album. His solo album was released a few weeks before the release of the new Jal's (Goher Mumtaz, Farhan Saeed, Shazi) "Aadat". As both Jal's "Aadat", and Atif’s album, Jalpari, shared certain tracks (such as "Aadat", "Wo Lamhey", "Rangon Mein" and "Dil Harey"), an unofficial war over rights began between both the groups. Goher Mumtaz sued Atif Aslam for using the name "Jal" in his album title cunningly (Jal pari, meaning mermaid). As the copyright law in Pakistan is quite ambiguous (people can change the name of the content and use the content labelling it as their own property), Jal could not sue Atif for the disputed songs on their albums. Atif Aslam faced a two year ban on singing in Pakistan as a result of the lawsuit.

The hype this feud gave to both Atif and the new Jal was extraordinary and split music fans with the fans of each side backing their respective favourite. On the other hand, a few years back a video on youtube was released with Atif Aslam giving a message to Goher Mumtaz to leave the differences behind and move on with his career and stop blaming each other fovoices.

Solo Career

Atif released his first album Jal Pari on 18th July 2004 by Sound Master and IC records. Its promoters declared it to be the best selling album of the year within just 5 months of the release. In the meantime Atif also cleared his Bachelors in Computer Science (hons) from University of Central Punjab. On 14th April 2007 Atif Aslam performed in Royal Albert Hall. His second album, Doorie was released on 22nd December 2006.

On 8th January, Aslam released his third album, Meri Kahani.

On 17th July 2008 Atif Aslam was the second singer to perform in Colosseum in Rome, Italy after the peace concert held on 12 May 2002.


Awards

    * Best song, best composition, and best lyrics for Aadat - 2nd Jazz Indus Music Awards (Pakistan)
    * Best playback singer and best debut singer - Sahara Sangeet Awards (India)
    * Best song, best lyricist, and best composition - ARY Music Awards (Pakistan)
    * Most Wanted Male - The Musik Awards (Pakistan)
    * Best pop star of the year - Filmazia Awards (Pakistan)
    * Best album of the year for Doorie - 2007 LUX Style Awards (Pakistan)
    * Most stylish musician of 2007 - MTV Pakistan Style Awards
    * Most stylish musician - MTV Style Lycra Awards (India)
    * Tamgha-e-Imtiaz or Medal-of-Excellence (Pakistan's highest civilian award), on Pakistan Day (March 23, 2008)
    * Best dressed male - LUX Style Awards 2008 (Pakistan)

Discography

Albums
Album Information
Jal Pari

    * Released: July 2004
    * Label: Sound Master and IC Records
    * Singles: Aadat, Bheeghi Yaadain, Jalpari, Gal sun ja, Mahi ve, Zindagi

Doorie

    * Released: December 2006
    * Label: Tips
    * Singles: Kuch is tarha, Doorie, Mahiya ve soniya, O Re Piya, Maula

Meri Kahani

    * Released: January 2008
    * Label: Tips , Fire Records
    * Singles: Meri Kahani, Humrahi, Hungami Halaat, Rabba Sacheya, Joug