Adnan Sami Biography

Adnan Sami was born in London, United Kingdom on August 15^th 1971. He was raised in London his father was a Pashtun and his mother was from Jammu. Adnan Sami’s father Mr Arshad Sami Khan has served in the Pakistani Air force as a pilot before becoming a senior bureaucrat as a Pakistani Ambassador in nearly 14 countries.

Family

Adnan Sami was married to first wife in 1993 to Zeba Bakhtiyar and they also had a son named Azaan Sami Khan, couple parted ways after 3 years of their marriage.

Adnan Sami began living in India since 13 March 2001, on a visitor’s visa which was extended from time to time. In the year 2001, Adnan Sami married Dubai-based Arab Sabah Galadari.

This was his second marriage and Sabah’s second marriage as well, she had a son from her previous marriage. This relationship also ended in divorce, a year-and-a-half later.

In June 2006, he weighed 230 kilograms (506 lb) he claimed his doctor had given him just six months to live. By diet and exercise, he lost 167 kilograms (368 lb) in 16 months

In 2008, his wife Sabah returned to Mumbai, remarried him and began living with him, but the marriage only lasted one year, after which Sabah filed for divorce again.

In 2009, his father died of pancreatic cancer, which he described as the “biggest blow” of his life, saying that he had been extremely close to his father.

On 29 January 2010 Sami married Roya Sami Khan, the daughter of a retired diplomat and army general. He first met Roya in India during her visit in 2010 and proposed to her after some time. On 10 May 2017, he became a father to a daughter, Medina Sami Khan.

Career

Adnan Sami had played the piano since the age of 5 and composed his first piece of music when he was nine years old. Sami began taking lessons in Indian classical music from the Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma when visiting India during his school vacations.

Indian singer Asha Bhosle saw him at age ten at an R. D. Burman concert in London, and encouraged him to take up music as a career. He is an accomplished concert pianist, music composer and singer with a command of Indian and Western classical/semi-classical music, jazz, rock and pop music. As a teenager, Adnan, when performing on the piano on a TV program in Stockholm, was described by the US-based Keyboard magazine as the “Fastest Man on Keyboard in the World”

The year 1986 has marked a push-start for Adnan Sami’s career he released his first ever album ‘’Run for His Life’’ which was released in 1986. It was in English, and recorded for UNICEF.

It went to No. 1 in the music charts in the Middle East. This was followed by three more No. 1s: “Talk to Me“, “Hot Summer Day” and “You’re My Best Kept Secret“.

The One & Only (1989), was a classical album on the piano accompanied by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. He released his first vocal solo album Raag Time in 1991.

The song from his album Teri Yaad was the title track of his first album, which became a huge hit in Pakistan.

Adnan Sami composed music for a film for the first time. The 1995 Pakistani film Sargam, in which he was the lead actor and Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle did the playback Sargam, was a box office success.

It was also the first time that an Indian playback singer was featured in an album in Pakistan. To date Sargam is the only film Adnan Sami has acted in, and the score is the best-selling album of all time in Pakistan.

In 2000, Asha Bhosle collaborated with Sami on a collection of love songs named Kabhi to Nazar Milao in India.

The music was also composed by Adnan. The album became an instant success and topped the Indipop charts for most of 2001 and 2002. According to Business Week magazine, the album sold 4 million copies in India alone.

Two songs from the album Kabhi to Nazar Milao, whose music video featured model Aditi Gowitrikar, and Lift Karaa De, whose music video starred the popular Indian actor Govinda became popular at that time.

The videos were shot by Anil Mehta, who had shot popular Hindi films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Lagaan. Because of the album’s success, Magnasound and Sami released an album named Always Yours which was a remix version of numbers from that album.

He soon became popular, which led Hindi filmmaker Boney Kapoor to invite him to provide music for his film. This was the beginning for him to compose and sing for Hindi films and for the top Hindi film producers of the time like Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai.

Due to the popularity of his music videos and live performances, he started getting acting offers at the same time. The song “Tu Sirf Mera Mehboob” from the Hindi film Ajnabee, sung by Adnan.

Became popular and was declared a “superhit” by Screen Magazine, who called him the pop personality of the year in 2001.

In 2002, Pepsi Foods made Adnan Sami its brand ambassador in India, a contract which involved hosting a series of live music concerts across cities as well as featuring in ads for Pepsi products.

He is the only artist in all of Asia and Europe to have endorsed Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola together.

 Work except Bollywood

Being a professional Pianist, Sami has given solo performances before royalty such as the King of Sweden and King Hussein of Jordan.

He has performed before heads of state and governments such as President Mitterrand of France, the President of the United Arab Emirates, the President and Prime Minister of India, the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, the President and Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, the Prime Minister of Sweden and Princess Christina of Sweden.

Adnan Sami has performed for music festivals to sold-out stadiums of his solo concert tours all over the world in over forty countries.

Sami wrote a song for India during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. The video of this song captures the nationalistic spirit of competition, depicting Adnan performing with the Indian cricket team with guest appearances from Indian film stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Fardeen Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

His work has associated him with prominent people from the Indian film and music industry.

On 15 December 2002, BBC World Service celebrated 70 years of broadcasting by organizing a worldwide live concert with artists representing different parts of the world who performed before a global audience via satellite. Sami was chosen to represent India.

In the summer of 2003, Sami became the only musical artist from the entire Asian region to have sold out Wembley Stadium in London for two nights in a row this was recorded in the Limca Book of World Records (Asia’s equivalent to the West’s Guinness Book of World Records). He did this again in 2005, 2008, and 2012.

Collaboration

• Zakir Hussain – Live in Karachi – Durga, Folk Tune, Jazz Piece, Beg Shree, Raag Meragi.
• Hadiqa Kiyani – Suhani Rutt Ayi, Kab Sey Khili Ho, Kya Hay Kya Uljhan, Pyaar Bina Jeena Nahi, Barse Badal, Who Mujhay Yaad.
• Asha Bhosle – Kabhi Toh Nazar Milao, Mehndi Masala, Pyar Bina, Pyar Hain, Dholki.
• Sunidhi Chauhan – Ajnabee, Awara Pagal Deewana, Pyaasa, Janasheen, Chot Aaj Isko Kal Tereko.

Awards

• Nigar Award
• Bolan Academy Award
• Special Award by UNICEF
• Breakthrough Artist Of The Year – MTV
• Special Award from the U.K. Parliament (House of Commons)
• Naushad Music Award” by Andhra Pradesh Department of Culture,
• Best International Act at the UK Asian Music Awards.
• Brand Laureate International Brand Personality award by the President of The BrandLaureate,
• Special Award by the Canadian Parliament for his ‘Exceptional Services to Indian Music’.
• Padma Shri By Government Of India – 2020