July | 2016 | EverythingShafqat

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Musical talent runs in families. No surprise then that there have been a lot of sibling singers around the world . In the Indian classical music we have several examples of people singing in Jodis, (pairs) some of them siblings. Names like Zahiruddin Dagar & Faiyazuddin Dagar and the Gundecha brothers – the very well-known exponents of the Dhrupad tradition; Salamat and Nazakat Ali Khan of the Sham Chaurasi Gharana, and Amanat Ali and Fateh Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana from across the border- duos who left their mark in Khayal and Thumri singing; Rajan and Sajan Mishra from the Banaras gharana – highly acclaimed in classical vocalists of India ;the Sabri brothers from Pakistan and the Wadali brothers from India- the doyens of the Sufi/Qawwali tradition and so on

Even in the lighter forms like film music or folk or pop there have been several singing siblings who have created waves. And though there are loads of examples for singing siblings, I am restricting this post to only to my favorites by siblings who have actually teamed together for singing performances or recordings.

Talking of film music the first singing sibling duo that immediately comes to mind is of course Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. There are many songs that they have sung together but this one remains my favorite

Lata teamed up with her brother Hridyanath Mangeshkar for this wonderful composition in Todi from the film, Lekin

And it is Asha and Usha who come together for this wonderful bhajan from the musically acclaimed, Julie.

Nazia and Zoheb Hassan were sensations when they arrived on the music scene with their blockbuster album Disco Deewane in 1981. This one, from their second album Boom Boom with music by Biddu, is my favorite.

In the 1990’s another brother and sister pair became popular in India by singing the remixes of Biddu. They were Shaan and Sagarika. Their album Naujawan was a hit as this was the time where Indie pop and music videos were really doing well. Sagarika disappeared soon after, taking a break from singing whereas Shaan continued his solo successful journey in pop music and Bollywood

This one by them is from another multi-artist album called Reason to Smile

Switching to folk, and going back a little in time… Punjab had a singing sister pair that took Punjabi folk to new heights. Prakash and Surinder Kaur ,with their well -matched voices, created magic in all that they sung together. This very popular folk by them tugs your heart strings each time…

And another bidai song by them for just one is not enough

To the present once again where another pair of sisters from Punjab have been making waves- the Nooran sisters- Jyoti and Sultana. They remain true to their roots whether they sing a Sufi song in a live performance or record a film song. This one with music by A.R. Rahman is by far my most favorite of theirs.

Shraddha and Shweta Pandit are the nieces of music directors Jatin and Lalit. They have both sung several songs in Bollywood individually but they came together for this album called Sister Act

A very recent hit from Queen had sisters Neha and Sonu Kakkar lending their voices to it along with late Labh Janjua

This post is getting terribly skewed in favor sister pairs so let’s talk about of sister trios then. We have on the Indian side the super cool Usha Uthup with her two sisters who have performed together as the Sami sisters. Pakistan too had a popular sister trio- The Benjamin sisters and their trademark was their poker faced singing 🙂

They seem to have grown more animated with age though

To break the monotony of sister singers, two brother singers, both my absolute favorites who have (as far as I know ) recorded only one song together. Shafqat and Asad Amanat Ali did this one for an album which was a tribute to their father and it was originally sung by the ustaad for a film