Reshma(1947-2013)

Reshma was a renowned folk singer of Pakistan who, due to her unique husky and folksy voice and personality, was popular both in India and Pakistan. Her folk songs were used both in Indian and Pakistani films. She was born in a family of gypsies in Rajasthan, British India in 1947. The family later migrated to Pakistan. She was discovered by a Radio Pakistan director Saleem Jeelani back in 1968. Before that, she used to sing,as a young girl, at small private village concerts in the rural areas of Pakistan. She started singing,as a hobby,at the young age of 12 in 1960. She had never received any formal training for singing until 1968, when Saleem Jeelani, impressed by the quality of her singing voice and the obvious self-confidence of this young girl, finally convinced her to get some basic music training at Pakistan Television. Then she started appearing on Pakistan Television music shows and her talent was instantly recognized by the public. Her big breakthrough came in 1972 with one of her Pakistan TV folk songs becoming a run-away super-hit nationwide in Pakistan and thereafter she stayed popular all through the 1980s and 1990s until she came down with some kind of cancer and then she finally died on 3 November 2013 at age 66. She has left behind dozens of hit folk songs as her legacy.