Faakhir Mehmood is a Pakistani singer and composer. He started out his career in a Pakistani musical group called Awaz. However, due to conflicts of interest, the band split and they all went to become solo artists. The band Awaz also consisted of well known musician Haroon.
Early life and career
Faakhir attended the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. During his university years, he met another young singer Haroon. Together, they formed the band Awaz. Faakhir joined the band as a keyboardist and Asad Ahmed as a guitarist. Awaz band was popular for a while in the early 1990s. Faakhir had produced three albums before 2006. His 2000 debut album, Aatish, was a big hit. His song in the album called Dil Na Lagey, Pakistan was the number one song for many weeks and was the best national song of the year 2000. His latest album is Mantra. On that album there is a song called Jiya Na Jaye, in which Faakhir shares a duet with Indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan. Another song in that album called Mahi Ve won two awards at India's Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards. He also performed at that event. Faakhir started working on his album ‘Aatish’ in July 2000 by releasing his first single in August, a national song ‘Dil Na Lagay, Pakistan’. This national song become an instant hit and topped the music charts in Pakistan. Riding on his wave of success he performed in New York City and Washington DC where he sang to a crowd of more than 30,000 people. Faakhir's live shows have taken his music to many countries in the world including the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, in addition to all parts of Pakistan. Faakhir has performed alongside several international contemporaries from Europe including Sukhbir and Stereo Nation to name a few. After deciding to go solo, Faakhir started work on his debut Album, ‘Aatish’ which was released in 2002. In July 2000, his efforts bore fruit as his very first song for the album, 'Dil Na Lagey, Pakistan' became popular. His song stayed on music charts as ‘Number one’ for many weeks before being declared as the best national song for the year 2000 by a local FM radio station. Faakhir has worked with the likes of Najam Sheraz for a series of concerts to promote peace and unity within Pakistan.
In 2015, he was one of the many musicians that worked on the Pakistani movie Ho Mann Jahaan.
In 2016, Faakhir returned as a performer at Coke Studio Pakistan's season 9. His first appearance was in an unplugged version of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Afreen Afreen". Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Momina Mustehsan rendered their voices for the song. His second appearance at Coke Studio was "Dilruba Na Raazi" a Pashto traditional folk song, which he sang along with Zeb Bangash. He appeared with Natasha Khan and performed Dil Kamla.
In 2017, Faakhir Mehmood made some comments on social issues that were newsworthy and were given news coverage by a major newspaper of Pakistan. In the past, Faakhir has served as the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the World Health Organization.
Jee Chaahey – Memhood's fourth album, it was composed and produced by the singer. The album was recorded at Shani's studio with lyrics by Sabir Zafar and Indian poet Prashant Vasal, and was released through Fire Records.
