Hadiqa Kiani

Hadiqa Kiani (born 11 August 1972) is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, guitarist, actress, and social worker. She has won many national and international awards. Hadiqa has also performed at famous places like the Royal Albert Hall in the UK and The Kennedy Center in the USA. Along with Urdu and Punjabi, she has also sung songs in various local and international languages.

Kiani was born in Rawalpindi as the youngest of three siblings. She has an older brother (Irfan Kiani) and a sister (Sasha). Her father died when she was three years old. Her mother, poet Khawar Kiani, was the principal of a government girls' school. Seeing her musical ability, Khawar enlisted Kiani in the Pakistan National Council of the Arts. She received early education in music from her teacher, Nargis Naheed.

While studying at Viqar-un-Nisa Noon Girls High School, Kiani represented Pakistan at international children festivals in Turkey, Jordan, Bulgaria, and Greece, winning various medals. Kiani was also a part of Sohail Rana's children's program Rang Barangi Dunya, a weekly musical on PTV.

As an eighth grader, Kiani moved from her birthplace Rawalpindi to Lahore, where she continued her classical training by Ustad Faiz Ahmed Khan and Wajid Ali Nashad. Kiani went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Kinnaird College for Women University and her Masters in Psychology from the Government College University in Lahore.

In the early 1990s, Kiani hosted a children's TV music program called Angan Angan Taray. In the 3+1⁄2-year-long run, she had sung over one thousand songs for children while hosting the show alongside the music composer Amjad Bobby and then with music composer Khalil Ahmed. Owing to the number of songs Kiani sang during this program, she was presented with the title of "A+ artist" on behalf of PTV joining the likes of Noor Jehan, Naheed Akhtar, and Mehnaz. Kiani also appeared as a VJ for a music charts program called Video Junction on NTM.

The following year, Kiani released her debut album Raaz (Secret) in 1996. The album spawned a string of radio-friendly hits and received positive reviews. Some argue that the reason the album did well was because it was not common for female singers (from educated/non-musical backgrounds) to release albums in Pakistan. Also, she was the first female singer to release a pop album after the former pop singer, Nazia Hassan, gave up her musical career. Kiani's ability to sing in other dialects was also presented to the country through the hit Kashmiri folk song "Maane Di Mauj."

Her increasing popularity was further highlighted in January 1997, when Kiani became the first Asian singer to perform at the British National Lottery Live on BBC One (a program with an estimated viewership 16.6 million at that time). Afterwards she worked on two more shows with Bally Sagoo for BBC and ITV before going on her first U.S. tour in 1997. Her U.S. tour covered 15 states and a few cities in Canada. The same year Kiani performed many other international events in the United Kingdom, Australia, and China. By the summer of 1997, Kiani was representing Pakistan as the only Pakistani singer to perform at "Celebration Hong Kong 97" at Happy Valley Race Course, alongside other International singers like Lisa Stansfield, Wet Wet Wet, Michael Learns to Rock, All 4 One and The Brand New Heavies, an event to celebrate Hong Kong's freedom from the United Kingdom.

By the end of the year she became the first Asian female singer ever to be signed by Pepsi Cola International.