Mehdi Hassan Khan was a Pakistani ghazal singer and a former playback singer for Lollywood. One of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of ghazal, he is famously known as the "King of Ghazal" or the "Shahanshah-e-Ghazal". Mehdi is credited with bringing ghazal singing to a wide audience. Born to a musical family, he influenced generations of singers from diverse genres. Mehdi Hassan had his musical grooming from his father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan who were both traditional Dhrupad singers. Hassan started to perform at a young age and the first concert of dhrupad and kheyal with his elder brother is reported to have been held in Fazilka Bungla, near present DC House (1935) of Undivided Punjab.
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