Hyderabad: Today is the 103rd birth anniversary of Ghazal Queen Begum Akhtar. Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, also known as Begum Akhtar was born on 7 October 1914, in Faizabad. She was a well-known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously) by Govt. of India. She was given the title of Malika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals).
Google today has dedicated a special doodle to mark the 103rd birth anniversary of ‘Malika-e-Ghazal’ Begum Akhtar. It shows her playing a sitar at the centre, with fans all around applauding her art.
Begum Akhtar was the pioneer of genre poetry-through-ghazal and paved the way for many eminent artists to follow such as Jigar Moradabadi, Kaifi Azmi and Shakeel Badayuni.
She died on 30 October 1974 and was buried in Lucknow.
