Hadiqa Kiani

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Hadiqa Kiani : biography

11 August 1974 –

On 23 March 2006, Kiani was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan, one of the highest civil awards of the country, in acknowledgement of her services in the field of music and for shining an encouraging light on the country for over a decade. The award was announced on 14 August 2005 but the ceremony was performed on 23 March of the next year.

Pakistan Idol and television work

Kiani will appear as a judge on an upcoming TV show on Geo TV called Pakistan Idol. The show itself has seen airing date delays due to the crisis in the country in the Winter of 2007 and is still in production. As of 1 August 2008 Geo TV, announced that the show and its auditions have been put on hold until further notice. Kiani stated in an interview, "I am very excited to be a judge and hope I can fish out some incredible talent in Pakistan!. In January 2009, Kiani joined the LG music project and it was announced that she would judge a new musical talent show in Pakistan called "LG Awaaz Banay Star" alongside Salamat Ali and Nizar Lalani. With a successful first season run, Geo announced that the show was to close down, due to political reasons in the country.

Other work

In March 2007, Kiani was one of the many artists featured in a widely popular track called "Yeh Hum Naheen". In this song, various Pakistani artists joined to send out a message that the stereotype of Pakistanis is not correct and that they oppose again Terrorism. The song also conveys an anti-terrorism sentiment in the music video and the campaign which Kiani is heavely involved with. Other artists in the song are Haroon, Ali Haider, Ali Zafar, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Strings. The song has been picked up by international stations like Fox News and BBC and has amassed over 70,000 downloads.

Kiani frequently appears in festivals, concerts and reality shows. Despite constant fame, Kiani keeps her personal life as "much as private it can get" and only talks about certain topics, usually involving music. Kiani has appeared on popular chat shows including AAJ TV’s Bean Bag show, ATV’s A Morning with Farah show, Geo’s Brunch with Bushra and most recently on Good Morning Pakistan during Spring season 2010.

Kiani works with Edhi Foundation and is involved with many charities, including Muslim Hands. In August 2010, Kiani and her siblings worked with local Pakistanis to donate clothing, water, food and shelter to the flood victims of Pakistan. Kiani also appeared in Geo Tv’s telethon Pukaar along with Pop star Ali Zafar to appeal for donations. In collaboration with Pakistan Army, Kiani made visits to Multan Relief Camp, Basti Kalraywala, Muzaffarabad and other flood hit areas, personally distributing goods to the affectees. On 8 November 2010 Kiani was appointed the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Goodwill ambassador. At the moment Hadiqa is busy helping construct housing facilities in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Nowshera is one of the worst flood hit areas in the country.

2010–present

In April, Kiani did a photoshoot for Gul Ahmed’s 2010 Summer Collection Chairman Latha with son Naaday Ali. Naaday was seen playing plastic drums with mum Hadiqa.

On June 2010, Kiani released the music video of "Be With You" from album Rough Cut on her website. The video features three models, searching for their true loves. The song was part of Kiani’s first English language album, and won the PMTV Award for Best Music Video in September 2010.

In early 2010, Kiani announced that she began work on her sixth album, which she hopes to release in Summer 2011. Kiani also stated that she has been writing songs independently for the album and that the album would consist her of singing songs in Chinese, French and Spanish.

On 17 October 2010, Kiani released her first single for Pakistan Flood’s victims called "Aasmaan". It was an adaptation of Legendary Sezen Aksu’s song "Sanalama" and the video featured Kiani’s visits to various flood hit areas. Hadiqa also joined an organisation called Superstars for Flood Relief later on, which aims to get Pakistani and International stars on board to help create awareness of the devastating floods and motivate more people to come forth and donate. Living legend Abida Parveen has been part of this organisation since the very beginning. Other bands and stars like Strings, Zeb and Haniya, Laal, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Pop star turned Nasheed singer Junaid Jamshed have also joined the cause.