Hadiqa Kiyani

After working on a successful music project with Adnan Sami, Kiani released her successful debut album, Raaz. After a musical ban imposed on her from the government, Kiani successfully returned to the music scene with her second album, Roshni, which remains her best selling album to date and helped establish her icon as the country's leading female vocalist. Kiani followed up Roshni with a more mature album, Rung. In 2007, she became the first Pakistani mainstream artist to release a complete English album, Rough Cut.

Kiani is also set to be a judge on a Pakistani version of American Idol, and released her fifth album, Aasmaan in June 2009.

Early life
Kiani was born on August 17. She is the youngest of 3 siblings, her older brother and sister who. Her father died when she was 3 years old. Kiani recalls the experience of losing her father on an interview show called Heart to Heart on ARY. She said it was very difficult for a few years for her family as issues had risen after her father's death, but she also said her mother was very brave throughout their upbringing.

Her mother Khawar was a principle of a government all girl school while Kiani and her older siblings were growing up right after her father's death the family had to move into the school. Kiani and both her brother and sister had a knack for music, and as such her mother and school enlisted her in the Pakistan National Council of the Arts. Kiani then performed in front of a crowd of a thousand people, at Liaqat Memorial Hall Pindi.

She went on to study at Viqar-un-Nisa Noon Girls High School Pindi. She represented Pakistan in International children festivals in Turkey, Jordan, Bulgaria, and Greece, winning various medals along the way. She also used to be on Sohail Rana's "Rang Barangi Dunya"; a weekly musical.

Adolescence
As an eighth grader Kiani moved from birth place Rawalpindi to Lahore. She was then enrolled Naya Aligar Public School. She then went on to Kinnaird and Govt. College, due to her excellent academic performance, and earned a masters in Psychology.

Television and film
Kiani came onto TV to host a children music program from PTV called Angan Angan Taray. In the three and a half year long run, she had sung over a thousand songs for children.  She also appeared as a VJ for various musical shows.

Kiani appeared as a playback singer for a musical movie called Sargam in 1994. The same year, she received awards for her playback singing.

2005-2006 worldwide performances
Kiani didn't release any single to promote Rung sales in 2005 and 2006. However, she continued to build on her success by touring heavily these years. Most of the time she was the official representative of Pakistan appointed by the government.

On August 11, 2005, Kiani performed in Nagoya for the Prime Minister of Japan Mr.Junichiro Koizumi. Kiani was invited to perform in Toronto on 14 Aug, 2005 by The Pakistani Consulate. She performed in Houston on 13th August 2005. The show was at Sam Houston Race Park, and it was attended by over 15000 people.

Chief guest of the show was Sheila Jackson Lee who is a member of the US House of Representatives. Kiani was asked to take out the lucky draws of PIA and she announced the names of the lucky winners. She then performed at the "Mets" in "Shea Stadium" New York on August 18, 2005. She also performed at the Pakistan Day Parade in New York on August 28, 2005.

She performed in Malaysia on the 2nd October 2005 at the newly built Convention Centre in Kualalampur downtown. The Honorary Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr.Shaukat Aziz was the chief guest of the show. The show was part of Expo 2005 in Malaysia. Important business and political personalities from both countries attended the show. She sang a Malay song, not a Pakistani song.

Kiani represented Pakistan on the 25th Anniversary of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) in Turkey. Islamic Countries such as Azerbaijan, U.A.E, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Turkey, Pakistan and Yemen took part in the celebrations. The event was organized by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. She performed at the AKM concert Hall on 23 November 2005.

Among the audience were musicians from various countries. The biggest surprise for the audience was when Hadiqa sang "Sanalama" (Turkish song of Living Legend "Sezanaksu"). Hadiqa told the audience that as Turkey stood beside Pakistan in good and bad times, she wanted to convey the love of Pakistani people for the Turks. She also told that she visited Turkey as a child star in 80s and represented Pakistan in the International Children's Festival in Turkey so had beautiful childhood memories associated with Turkey.

The audience gave her a standing ovation. At the end of her performance, The Mayor of Istanbul presented a bouquet of flowers to her. After her performance she received invitations for Pakistan to participate in the upcoming Art festivals in various countries such as Iran, Syria, Qatar and Lebanon. During her stay in Istanbul she officially visited various historical sites in Turkey and conveyed the love of Pakistan for Turkey. Her performance in Istanbul was important news in various Turkish News papers.

Kiani performed in China for the Chinese 2nd Premier on 21st Feb, 2006. She performed for President George W.Bush on 4 March, 2006. Commenting on her performance, Bush said he liked her accent and wanted her to perform in USA. She performed for the Crown Prince of Brunei Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah on 29 May, 2006.

Kiani performed for Mrs.Laura Bush on September 21, 2006 at The Kennedy Convention Centre, Washington DC. She closed the year by performing for HRH Prince Charles on October 30, 2006, and the Chinese President on November 23, 2006.

2005-2006 music contributions
Though Kiani couldn't release music and didn't promote sales for Rung due to her touring in these years, she still remained a strong figure in the industry due to her contributions and experiments. She also won an Indus Music Award for the Best Female singer for the second time in 2005.

Throughout 2005, Kiani did not release any video to promote Rung. She did however sing in various collaborations with other male singers. She sang the OST for a drama on HUM TV called "Aas Paas" with singer Atif Aslam. She sang 2 more OST's for the same channel, one being "Koi Lamha Gulab Sa" with Ahmed Jehanzeb, and another solo OST for a drama called "Tum Meray Ho". She also was featured in Najam Sheraz's single "In Say Nain" alongside many other featured artists.

She was the only female artist in that song. She also performed for a special show on ARY's The Musik called "Re-Mastered", where she sang her songs and covered popular band Fuzon's song Teray Bina. In the same show, Fuzon covered her song Boohey Barian, and asked her to sing with them on their closing number, Aankhon Ke Sagar.

Kiani also performed for Geo TV in May 2005 for their show called "Geo Applause". The show was held at Sailing Club Karachi, and it was attended by large number of important personalities of the pop industry. Hadiqa sang songs that were mostly slow in tempo. Hadiqa told the audience in the beginning of the show that she would sing songs that she personally liked and those might not be people's choice.

It was also her return to hosting a show after over a decade. In the show, she gave a tribute to The Carpenters by singing their song I Need to Be in Love. According to the producer of the show (Nadeem J), it was the best "applause" ever recorded for Geo.

In January 2006, Kiani released a single, "Iss Bar Milo". Although the song was off her album Rung, it was used instead to promote a recently formed duo between her and Aamir Zaki. They both had planned to release an English album soon. The song became a huge success, and its video continue to build on the trend of videos Hadiqa had released. In the video Kiani plays a schizophrenic patient at a mental institution for women. Reviews for the rock song were extremely favorable, with people appreciating her acting and her decision to sing different genres.

Kiani had released another video in 2006. She was featured on UK based producer Khiza's album Loyal To The Game. The album's lead single, "Mehr Ma" featured Hadiqa. The song was a massive success in Pakistan, and was seen as a great return for Hadiqa after her ballads in Rung.

This was highlighted by the fact that Khiza's same album in Pakistan was titled Mehr Ma and not Loyal to the Game. Also, the album cover in Pakistan only has Kiani on it, not Khiza. In the video, Kiani is seen with different hairstyles and outfits. Kiani also cut her hair short and dyed it red for the video. Its reviews have been extremely favorable. One source says "'Mehr Ma', which starts off the album is easily the best track on it.

With Kiani showcasing her top-notch vocals and the music, which remains hip-hopish yet very desi, thanks to the usage of sitar, tabla makes it an excellent number." Hadiqa also performed the song at the 2006 Lux Style Awards, and was called the best performer of the night in reviews. To date, Mehr Ma has the second highest hits of all of Hadiqa's videos on Youtube, only trailing Boohey Barian.

Adoption
In late October, 2005, Kiani became the first person to adopt a baby from the earthquake. She has named the baby boy "Naad-e-Ali" (though she spells his name Naaday Ali) and officially announced her adoption decision on Geo TV the same night she adopted him on a live show. She then proceeded to announce it in an official press release.

There have been some conflicting opinions with Kiani adopting a baby. Some people argued as to why she was allowed to adopt when there were laws passed against adoption to prevent human trafficking. This however wasn't a strong basis of argument, others said, since the baby was given to her, and it was not she who applied for him.

Hadiqa has applied for official adoption of the baby ever since the law against adoption were released. Since the adoption she has married again. She claims the reason to be "wanting to give [her son] Naad-e-Ali the love of a father".

Tamgha-e-Imtiaz
On March 23, 2006, Kiani was awarded the "Tamgha-e-Imtiaz" by the Government of Pakistan, one of the highest civil awards of the country, for acknowledging her services of in the field of music and bringing good name to the country for over a decade. The award was announced on August 14, 2005, but the ceremony was on March 23 the next year