coming up in special broadcast on www.newstrustindia.com from SanFransisco
Many artists have careers. Hasan Jahangir has a weather system
Born on 1 July 1962 in Karachi, Pakistan, he made his image entirely by himself, street fashion, his own self-taught dance style, and a disco beat that no one else was using – earning the moniker ‘Michael Jackson of Pakistan.’
His first single, “Imran Khan is a Superman,” was in 1982. But it was not until his second single, “Hawa Hawa” (recorded in 1986 but released in 1987), that people began to mock him. However, after Jahangir heard the song coming from another person’s car while stopped at a traffic light and realized how much popularity the song had gained, he knew the joke would be short-lived. This song became the best-selling album with an estimated 15 million copies sold in India.
When he traveled across the border into India in 1987, all of Bollywood’s top performers were waiting for him at every stop along the way. There was such enthusiasm for his arrival, that a helicopter was required to raise him above the crowds of fans in order for him to arrive at his own concert in Mumbai. When he arrived in New Delhi to meet with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he was hosted to dinner and was treated as a dignitary; music breaking through barriers of communication that governments often fail to break through.
Jahangir has many accomplishments which are most significant off stage. Approximately twenty-nine years ago, he lost his wife and decided to not marry again. He raised their young infant daughter alone. Today she is a Doctor living in Sweden. He refers to her as his ‘lifeline’.
The winds continue blowing. In 2023, Pakistan honoured him with the “Sitara-i-Imtiaz”, and in March of this year (2026) he is believed to have received $50,000 in royalty payments for the use of “Hawa Hawa” in Ranveer Singh’s movie ‘Dhurandhar’ – a well-deserved acknowledgement for an artist whose existence during the early days of royalties hardly even existed.
For forty years now, the song continues to play somewhere. And so does the life it quietly supported.
watch out for this space for his upcoming exclusive broadcast with www.newstrustindia.com from San Francisco on the sidelines of a lifetime achievement award from American diaspora
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