Saleem Raza (singer)

Saleem Raza (July 7, 1932 – November 25, 1983) was a Pakistani playback singer. He started his singing career from Lahore film industry and quickly gained populaity. He was famous in singing sad songs. Saleem Raza's career suffered due to the rise of singer Ahmed Rushdi in late 1950s.

Saleem Raza was born as Noel Dias in Amritsar, India in a Christian family. After partition, he migrated to Pakistan and settled in Lahore. He changed his name to Saleem Raza and started singing at Lahore Radio Station. Raza made friends with popular artist of the time, Mohni Hameed.^[1] Both Saleem Raza and Mohni Hameed were often seen together for long periods of time. Additionally, Saleem Raza learned music from the famous music composers of those days like M. Sadiq Ali, and Ustaad Aashiq Husain. Saleem Raza’s break came in director Syed Ata Ullah Hashmi’s 1955 film Naukar. Saleem Raza lent his voice to the tragic score, "Taqdeer kay Malik deikh zara kya zulm hai" (Duet, Saleem Raza – Kausar Perveen). But his first famous film as playback singer was "Qatil" in 1955. He got breakthrough from his super hit song "Yaaro mujhe muaaf rakho, main nashey mein hoon" (Saat Laakh - 1957).^[2] He sung many other super hit songs in big films like Aas Paas, Do Rastey, Haboo, Hamsafar, Seema and many more. His last big film was Pail ki jhunkar (1966).

Saleem Raza remained a dominating singer in late 1950s due to his popularity in singing tragic songs. In 1961, music director Khalil Ahmed recoded a sad song "kisi chaman mei raho tum" in Raza's voice for film "Anchal" but was not satisfied with his expressions. Initially, he decided to re-record the same song in Mehdi Hassan's voice but changed his mind because Mehdi Hassan was facing difficulty in high notes as the composition had variations. Khalil finally invited famous singer Ahmed Rushdi to sing the same song and Rushdi not only satisfied Khalil but also the song was a hit.^[3] Apart from Ahmed Rushdi, Saleem Raza was in direct competition with highly talented singers like Masood Rana, Mujeeb Aalam and Bashir Ahmed. Moreover his voice was best suited on Syed Musa Raza (Santosh Kumar) and his brother Darpan. They also lost their popularity in mid 1960s. These were the basic factors which effected his fame. Later, with the change in the rcording devices, Raza started facing difficulty to adjust with the new recording equipment, resulting a set back to his career.

Saleem Raza was in the grip of serious financial crisis in the 1970s. His wife, Maude, earned the livelihood and supported him. He migrated to Vancouver, Canada, in 1975, and established a music school. For eight years, from 1975 to 1983, Saleem Raza taught music to numerous music students. He also started performing in musical concerts. Saleem Raza suffered from kidney malfunction, which took his life on November 25, 1983. He was fifty-one years of age.^[4]