Najma Akhtar

Najma Akhtar ( Akhtar pronounced: Roller ) ( also briefly: Najma ) ( born September 18, 1962 in Chelmsford, Essex ) is a British world music and fusion singer.

Akhtar's parents are of Pakistani origin. Akhtar studied chemical engineering at Aston University in Birmingham. With vocals they began in 1984. Having won the Asian Song Contest with the first recording of an Indian folk elements ( bhajans ) provided jazz album took place in 1986 in India. The album produced in England Qareeb on which a range of Indian Ghazals is presented, which were set to music in a mixture of old oriental and modern Western melodies ( composed of saxophonist Ray Charles), then Akhtar's international debut took place in 1987.

The songs of this album were announced at international fashion shows and in the movie Sammy and Rosie Get Laid a wider public. After then following live performances in 1989 Atish ( "fire" ), published in 1992 Pukar. With Forbidden Kiss finally tried an adaptation of the Bollywood film music composer Sachin Dev Burman of India.

Akhtar is also on albums by Jah Wobble ( Take Me to God ), Andy Summers ( The Golden Wire), Steve Coleman (Black science), Jimmy Page / Robert Plant ( No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded ) and Jethro Tull ( J- Tull Dot Com) heard.