You may know Arif Lohar primarily from his wildly successful Coke Studio appearances but that is just a fraction of his 20 year career as one of Pakistan and the subcontinent’s most renowned musicians. To hear Arif Lohar live is to be in the presence of one of the most skilled musical voices of any genre across the world who performs to sellout crowds everywhere.
He also has some remarkably unusual performances to his credit: he’s the only South Asian artist to have performed in North Korea in front of late President Kim Jong Il and in 2004, he performed in China for the opening of the Asian Games to a crowd of close to 1 million.
In the last two decades he has been on over 50 international tours around the world including in the UK, US and UAE. He has also played multiple lead roles in Punjabi movies, and sang and produced three songs for the soundtrack of Syed Noor‘s film Jugni (film), the highest grossing Pakistani film of 2012.
In 2005, Arif Lohar was awarded the Pride of Performance Award by the Government of Pakistan - the highest civilian award in Pakistan. He has over 150 albums and 3000 songs to his credit. In 2006, he made headlines in the Punjabi music world by releasing an album 21st Century Jugni, with music produced, arranged and mastered by Mukhtar Sahota in Wolverhampton, UK, and released by Internalmusic UK.
Last year Saif Ali Khan bought the right of Arif’s Alif Allah Chambey Dey Booti/Jugni as a feature song for the Bollywood movie Cocktail. Other versions of Jugni have also been featured in Bollywood movies, including an adapted version of Mukhtar Sahota and Arif lohar’s 2006 album 21st Century Jugni in Diary of a Butterfly.
