The full name of Adnan Sami Khan is Adnan Sami Khan. He was born on 15th August 1973 and is a popular musician, pianist, actor and composer of Pakistani descent. The music style of Adnan Sami is to merge Asian and Western styles and vary the instrumentation that ranges from classical to jazz to modern pop rock. Adnan Sami was awarded MTV`s 2001 "Breakthrough Artist of the Year". He is best known for his spellbinding performances on Vocals, piano since 1995.
Early Life of Adnan Sami
Adnan Sami born in the United Kingdom, was admitted to the Rugby School, and completed his graduation from King`s College London. Adnan Sami`s father Arshad Sami Khan was born in Pakistan and is a recognized senior Pakistani diplomat. He studied music at school and at higher education level where he skilfully developed his musical style and technique on the Piano. He is the first person to play Pakistani Classical music on the electric Piano. Adnan Sami went forward to learn classical music from Mahraj Khatak, a classical singer and dancer in Pakistan. Adnan Sami performed several programmes on Pakistani television under his mentor Sohail Rana.
Career of Adnan Sami
Adnan Sami had his first solo album `Raag Time` in 1991-92. The most successful and accepted performance of Adnan Sami on Pakistan Television was "Aa Khuda" and his other performances include albums like Kabhi To Nazar Milao (with Asha Bhosle) and `Tera Chehra.` The interesting part of his album videos was that they featured a host of Bollywood stars in them. Actors like Bhoomika Chawla ("Maahiya"), Namrata Shirodkar ("Bheegi Bheegi Raat"), Diya Mirza ("Pal Do Pal"), Amisha Patel ("O Meri Jaan"), Raveena Tandon, Mahima Chaudhary, Rani Mukherjee, Fardeen Khan, Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan ("Kabhi Nahi").
Adnan Sami has also sung a huge score of Kannada Film songs. His first such Kannada song was a big hit `Don`t worry madabeda` for the film `Super Star` starring Upendra Patel. He also sang for a film `Soundarya", featuring Ramesh. In Bollywood movies he made his debut with the filmmaker Boney Kapoor and later composed music for other directors like Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai. Sami sang for many popular movies such as Ajnabee (2001), Saathiya (2002), Salaam-E-Ishq, Shaurya (2008) and many others.
Adnan Sami was married to Zeba Bakhtiar, a famous pakistani TV artist However, the marriage did not last for long. Adnan Sami then fell in love with Dubai-based Sabah Galadari and married her in 2001. This relationship also came to an end after a year-and-a-half.
Awards and Honours of Adnan Sami
Adnan Sami has won many international awards, including the "Bolan Academy Award", the "Nigar Award" and the "Graduate Award". He was also conferred with the "Special Award of UNICEF" and a United Nations Peace Medal for a song he wrote and performed for Africa. Adnan Sami was invited as a member of the jury of the high-status music festival "Voice of Asia" competition, held annually at Almaty, Kazhakstan - the jury comprises best music composers of the world. Sami was also featured in a documentary, especially made by the Foreign and Common Wealth Office of Great Britain. The film narrates the story of ten people from the Indian sub-continent who have influenced the Asian culture in the UK, over the last fifty years.
In Keyboard Magazine, a review of his piano solo performance acknowledged him as the "Keyboard Discovery of The 90s". Swedish radio and television referred to him as the fastest keyboard player in the entire world. Adnan Sami has performed for prestigious music festivals all over the world in over forty countries. In summer 2003, he was known to be the only Asian artiste to have sold out, Wembley Stadium, London, for two successive nights, which won him a place in the Limca Book of Records.
Being a classical concert pianist, Adnan Sami acquired the honour of giving "solo" Royal Command performances before the King of Sweden and King Hussein of Jordan. He has also performed concerts in front of Heads of State and Government such as President Mitterrand of France, the President and Prime Minister of India, the President of United Arab Emirates, the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Prime Minister of Kyrgystan, the President and Prime Minister of Khazakhstan, the Prime Minister and Christina of Sweden. In 2008, Adnan Sami was honored with the "Naushad Music Award" by Andhra Pradesh, Department of Culture, at Hyderabad.