MINGORA: Keeping all worries and fears aside, Saadia Shah, a 15-year-old singer in Banr area of Mingora, has vowed to enthral music lovers with her soft sweet voice.

Saadia is from a family of singers in Swat and also a cousin of famous Pashto singer, late Ghazala Javed. Apart from Ghazala, Dil Raj, Nazia Iqbal and Neelo have already earned fame in the field of singing in her family.

Though many girls in her relatives and community entertain people with their dance performances in ceremonies, Saadia prefers to sing.

“There are two factors which motivated me to sing; since my childhood I have seen that people give more respect to singers than dancers, and I have high a passion for singing too. This is why I made my mind to sing and not dance,” she told Dawn.

She is the cousin of late singer Ghazala Javed

For her, only singing is not a complete source of satisfaction, but playing harmonium is also her passion and she wants to earn fame as a famous harmonium player.

“I love to be a well-known harmonium player as I am fond of this music instrument,” she said. However, learning harmonium is not an easy job and she works hard to learn it. She prefers to sing ghazal as ghazals are liked by mature and refined people.

“I think ghazal is the backbone of the music, and I also receive high applause from people when I sing ghazal,” she said. Her cousin Ghazala Javed, who was shot dead in June 2012 in Peshawar, was her ideal.

Speaking about the challenges, she said that she and her community only wanted to give happiness to the community.

“This is our profession by which we earn livelihood. We cannot stand in front of those who dislike us and want to stop our profession,” she says, adding their safety is the state responsibility as they are also citizens of the country.

She says sometimes they don’t care about their own feelings but go to entertain others in their ceremonies. “At times, despite happening of a tragic incident in our family we have to perform in someone’s wedding ceremony because of the prior appointment. So we have to ignore our tragedy and go to entertain them,” says the young singer.

Saadia says that she is very selective in going out for music performances and only goes to the ceremonies where she feels to have respect. “We only go to places where we are sure to be respected and never go there where we feel people are less civilised or disrespectful.”

She is illiterate and repents over her past when she did not like to go to school. “My father sent me to school, but I did not take interest in education in my childhood and left it, but now I realised my mistake and repent over it,” she says with a tinge of disappointment on her face.

Saadia began her singing career in late 2013 and has already performed on PTV, Radio Pakistan and also on various channels of Afghanistan.

Her solo music album is also a big success in the market.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2015

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