Abida Sultana
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Abida Sultana can sing in so many languages and has made so many appearances in shows outside the country, that she has virtually transformed herself as a cultural ambassador for the country and a diva inside it.
Born in Panchagar, a border district of Bangladesh in the north, to a family which has been culturally-inclined for generations – a family which had its wings spread into almost all genres including music, drama and dance-Abida was inducted into her fate from a young age.
‘All around me, my family members, including my uncles and aunts, were involved in cultural activities,’ recalls the veteran singer.
Interestingly, as a young girl, Abida had developed a far stronger inclination for dance than she did for music. ‘My mother pointed out to me that it would be better if I focused in singing more as being a Bengali girl, my chances of continuing to dance after marriage would be very slim,’ she recalls with a smile.
Her mother eventually became a hard task-master in implementing her point. ‘She would literally torture me to sign up for music contests,’ Abida laughs. And to her mother’s pride, she ended up bringing many trophies home by winning these contests.
Early on in life, Abida got her music lessons from Babu Ram Gopal Mahanta, Ustad Phool Mohammad, Akhter Sadmani, Barin Majumder, Ustad Naru and Ustad Sagiruddin Khan, and these masters continued to influence her throughout her life.
Abida has been trained in both Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti, but her favourite has always been modern songs. ‘I liked to sing modern songs because it gave me a greater scope to display my creativity ahead of other genres,’ she said.
Abida, known as Shikha among her near and dear ones, was spoon-fed during the time she emerged champion in an East Pakistan Children’s Music Competition (which later on became the Nuton Kori) and was enrolled as an artist on both television and radio, in 1968, where she has been a regular ever since.
‘I used to participate in a programme titled Khelaghor, anchored by Nurunnahar Faijunnessa, and she once mistakenly addressed me as Chika (rat) instead of Shikha and I started crying,’ says Abida, now full of giggles recalling that incident.
Though relatively young, Abida remembers the Liberation War of 1971 quite vividly, as one of her uncles was a freedom-fighter who used to visit their house in Motijheel, Dhaka, regularly.
‘We heard rifle shots during the massacre at Rajarbagh Police Line on the night of March 25 as our house was not far away from the place. During the war, we discreetly fed freedom fighters during the whole period of nine months.’
A proud student of Siddeswari Girls High School, Abida started singing playback songs in 1974 and though her first movie was not eventually released, so far she has voiced around 450 films.
‘The song Bimurto ai ratri amar mounotar sutai bona rangin chadar was recorded in 1975 for the film Simana Periye, the music of which was directed by Bhupen Hajarika,’ recalls Abida. ‘In the beginning, he was not confident about my performance, but eventually the song was recorded on first take and immediately after it finished, Bhupen put a garland around my neck.’
Nowadays, she does not sing playback songs that often as she feels that the environment surrounding soundtracks has changed.
Ami sat sagore pari diye saikate pare asi, Amni kore akdin prem hoye jai and Aki bhadone jorale amai are the songs she likes best among the thousands she has sung so far. She also describes Ferdousi Rahman as an influence upon her in terms of music while her favourite singers of the country are Nilufar Yasmin, Subir Nandi and her loving husband Rafiqul Islam.
Abida fell in love with Rafiqul Alam in 1974 and later got married in 1979. They would meet each other frequently at the different musical functions, which developed and strengthened a relationship between them, and they finally decided to marry.
‘Lucky Akhand (a well-known musician) introduced me to Rafiqul as a fine singer in the country during a music festival,’ remembers Abida. Abida and Rafiqul have a son through their marriage, Farshid Alam, who himself is an aspiring musician and member of the band Bohemian.
After their wedding, the celebrity couple became regulars on different magazine covers and entertainment sections of different newspapers. ‘Afzal Hossain used to host a programme on television and in one episode, he put me and Rafiq on the dock, literally designed like a court, and quizzed us with various questions,’ says Abida.
Abida, by far, is the most in-demand artist in state-sponsored programmes having sung for the likes of Queen Elizabeth, Indira Gandhi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Yasser Arafat, the former Secretary General of United Nations Kurt Waldheim, Benazir Bhutto, Mahathir Mohammad and Bill Clinton, among others.
Most amazingly, Abida can render songs in as many as 32 different languages of the world. ‘During my childhood, I met a man (I can’t remember his name) who spoke in only English but could sing in as many as 22 languages,’ she remembers.
‘I was very fascinated and since then, I have consciously tried to learn songs in different languages.’
Abida has also travelled to as many as 30 countries as part of a state cultural delegation. ‘I feel all important when I see all those police vans and security forces escorting us,’ she jokes.
One of her most memorable tours was during 1988, or 1989, when the Bangladesh cultural tour won in a folk festival in Egypt. ‘During the programme, I performed an Arabic song originally sung by the famous artist Fairuz (Nouhad Haddad famously known as Fairuz is a Lebanese diva) and throughout the rest of the tour, I was referred to as Fairuz,’ recalls Abida.
Abdida, who has a pet cat called Picasso, has more than 12 CDs, cassettes and disk records to her credit including solo and duet albums, including Rongila Pakhire, Chunyona, Train Chariya Jai, Swarolipi and her latest solo album Antore Bairagi, released during the last Eid ul Fitr
Looking towards the future, Abida says that she wants to continue to retain the honour; respect and love the people of the country have given her. ‘I want to sing songs and of course, quality songs,’ she concludes.
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