Photo by Hammad Khan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSufism · The Queen of Sufi Music
Pakistani singer and composer of Sufi music, widely called the Queen of Sufi music, who has carried the poetry of the Sufi saints from the shrines of Sindh to concert halls worldwide.
Abida Parveen sings the poetry of the Sufi saints — kafi, ghazal and Sufi kalam — in a voice that has become one of the most recognisable in South Asia. Her career spans more than five decades, and she is among the most decorated vocalists in Pakistan.
The material she works with is old: the verse of Bulleh Shah, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Kabir and others, sung in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi and Persian. She is also a composer and a painter. What she is best known for is the intensity of live performance, where a single line of poetry can be turned over for many minutes at a stretch.
Talks, day programmes and retreats currently listed in the Paths Are Many calendar.
Short introductions and longer conversations, to hear this teacher in their own words.
A full festival set in front of a live audience, where she moves between Urdu ghazal, Sindhi kafi and Punjabi kalam and stretches lines out as the room responds.
Abida Parveen trades verses with Naseebo Lal over a slow-building band arrangement, the refrain urging the listener to let go and whirl.
Talks, guided meditations and podcast conversations, playing from the platform this teacher publishes them on.
A long, unhurried conversation in which she talks about where her singing comes from, what longing means to her, and her relationship to the Sufi poets she sings.
Listen on YouTubeA mystical path of love, remembrance, poetry and inner refinement.
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