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Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, an exponent of the Patiala Gharana is counted amongst the foremost Khayal vocalists alive today in Pakistan. He is the younger of the singing duo “Amanat Ali-Fateh Ali”, who were highly respected names in the world of music in Pakistan as well as in India, until the demise of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan (1932-1974).

The duo tasted success and became celebrities at a very young age in undivided India, and achieved their highest official recognition in 1969, when the President of Pakistan conferred upon them the Pride of Performance Medal.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and his late brother received training from their father, Akhtar Hussain Khan, a distinguished vocalist of Patiala gharana in undivided India. Their grandfather, Ali Baksh, who also served the same court, was a cofounder of the Patiala gharana. With their debut in 1945 at Lahore, their career reached a breakthrough at the All-Bengal Music Conference in Calcutta in 1949, when Amanat Ali was 17, and Fateh Ali was 14. The rest was history.

Post Partition in 1947, the legends went on to become and be known as the foremost vocalists of the subcontinent. However, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was dealt a devastating blow with the demise of his brother Amanat Ali in 1974 after which he joined Radio Pakistan as a supervisor.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan was urged to restart his performing career, but it was hard for him to overcome the loss of his brother’s voice initially. Once he overcame his initial block, he started singing as a duo with his younger brother Hamid Ali Khan, as well his nephews, Asad Amanat Ali Khan (1952-2007) or Amjad Amanat Ali Khan who are both sons of his late brother Ustad Amanat Ali Khan.

The absence of his brother, however, made the legend redevelop and re-align his singing style. He had to fill the void left by Ustad Amanat Ali Khan at the peak of their career.

Though trained also in the Dhrupad genre, the uncle-nephew duo mostly performed Khayal, and the romanticist genres, Thumris, Dadra, and Ghazal. They have, since then performed widely in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and South Asia, and released several recordings and even undertaken musical collaborations with international artistes.

The “Bade” (elder) prefix got attached to Ustad Fateh Ali Khan’s name after younger Pakistani musicians with similar names started making waves with an entirely different genre of music.