Today is the 69th birthday of melody queen Runa Laila. She has mesmerised the audience with her enchanting voice over the year that earned her the ‘National Film Award’ many times and countless other awards over her 50-year career as a singer.
friends and well-wishers at home and abroad have sent greeting messages to the noted singer on the occasion. Celebrities and her co-artistes also take to the social media and shower love on Runa Laila with birthday wishes.
Runa Laila was born on November 17, 1952 to Emdad Ali and Amina Laila in Sylhet. She has sung and recorded over 10,000 songs. Her name is included in the Guinness World Records for recording 30 songs within three days.
Runa Laila will celebrate her birthday with family members. She said, “I have no special plan to celebrate my birthday. I will spend the day with family. Whenever my birthday comes I reminisce about my childhood memories. My parents always used to organise special programme on my birthdays. Nowadays, I try to spend the day with my family.”
“By the grace of Almighty I have earned all the achievements in my music career. I’m very happy with that. Now, I want everyone to keep me in their good wishes and prayers”, she added.
Runa Laila is one of the most popular singers in South Asia. She started her career in Pakistan film industry in late 1960s.
Runa Laila began started learning singing at the age of six in Karachi. She won the interschool music competition when she was only nine years old. She had a brief training in dance at a tender age, so she used to sing and dance at the same time on stage. She used to host her own show at PTV named Bazm-E-Lail.
Runa Laila moved to Bangladesh with her family in 1974. Then she started her music career in Bangladesh. Her first playback after returning to Bangladesh was in the film ‘Jibon Shathi’.
Shortly after, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations invited Runa on a tour of India. Since then, she has been known as The Damadam Girl, apparently for her remarkable performance in ‘Damadam Mast Kalandar’. Runa Laila made her first Hindi playback debut with the film ‘Ek Se Badhkar Ek’.
Asked about how she feels when her birthday approaches or if there are any regrets, she replied, “The only thing that comes to my mind when my birthday approaches is – I am growing older. But I have no regrets and no expectations. I have got enough love from the people. I don’t want anything else in my life.”
In 2019, Runa Laila began composing music. She now plans to compose more songs with the young singers in the upcoming days. She also has plans to collaborate with foreign singers soon.
Runa Laila can sing songs in 18 languages including Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujrati, English, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French and others. She has rendered playbacks for Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian films.
She has lent her voice to songs for hit films like Keyamat Theke Keyamat, Beder Meye Jotsna, Dui Jibon, Agneepath, Jaan-e-Bahaar, Sapnon Ka Mandir, Man Ki Jeet and others.
Runa Laila has received around 300 awards from various countries including Independence Award, Bangladesh National Film Award, Lux-Channel i Lifetime Performance Award, Bangladesh, Saigal Award of India, Nigar Award, Critics Award and National council of Music Awards of Pakistan.
