Abida Parveen
photo: ramesh lalwani · cc by 2.0 ↗Abida Parveen is a Pakistani vocalist from Sindh known as the 'Queen of Sufi Music,' celebrated for a trance-inducing intensity in kafi, qawwali, and ghazal built on rigorous classical training. Her father, the singer and teacher Ustad Ghulam Haider, chose her over his own sons as his musical heir, and she later studied further under Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of the Sham Chaurasia gharana before becoming a global ambassador for Sufi devotional music from the 1990s onward.
Beyond her father's own tutelage, Abida Parveen was also mentored by Ustad Salamat Ali Khan of the Sham Chaurasia gharana, whose khayal rigor underlies the classical control she brings even to trance-like Sufi kalam.
listen forOn 'Yaar Ko Humne Ja Baja Dekha,' notice how she treats the raga scaffolding with real classical precision before letting the performance loosen into ecstatic repetition — that base layer of khayal discipline is the Salamat Ali Khan influence.