GayaksSingers of Hindi and Bengali music
The Seventies and Eighties · 1970s – 1980s

Runa Laila

रूना लैला
Born17 November 1952, SylhetSinging years1965 – present
Dama Dam Mast Qalandar — the Bangladeshi singer who gave Hindi film a handful of songs and the subcontinent a qawwali.

Runa Laila is a Bangladeshi singer who grew up in Pakistan, became a star of Pakistani film and radio, and in the mid-1970s sang in Bombay — Do Diwane Shehar Mein and Tumhein Ho Na Ho in Gharaonda (1977), Ek Se Badhkar Ek, Ghazab, and the pop album Superuna. Her recording of Dama Dam Mast Qalandar is the one most Indians know.

On Gayaks TV click any song to play it here

Landmark songs

Mera Babu Chhail Chhabila
Maan Ki Jeet (Pakistani film) · 1972
Nisar Bazmi; the song later reused in Hindi film.
Shemaroo

Life

She was born in Sylhet in 1952 and brought up in Karachi, where her father was posted; she sang for Pakistani films from the age of twelve and became a radio and television star. After 1971 she moved to Dhaka and became Bangladesh's leading singer, with a vast output in Bengali and Urdu. Jaidev brought her to Bombay for Gharaonda, and Bappi Lahiri and Kalyanji-Anandji recorded her in the late 1970s and early 1980s; she also sang in India with Jagjit Singh and others on stage.

She has received Bangladesh's highest civilian honours and the Pride of Performance in Pakistan, and still performs across the three countries.

The voice

Runa Laila's voice is powerful, bright and theatrical, with a quick vibrato and a dramatic attack — a concert voice more than a playback one — and in the Sufi qawwali it is at full strength.

Composers

  • Jaidev
  • Bappi Lahiri
  • Kalyanji-Anandji
  • Nisar Bazmi

Sang for

  • Zarina Wahab

Sang with

Honours

Independence Day Award and Ekushey Padak (Bangladesh) · Pride of Performance (Pakistan)

More film songs 1 songs, by year

1970s

Tumhe Ho Na Ho Mujhko Toh Itna Yakeen Hai
Gharaonda · 1977
Goldmines

Every song here plays from the record label's or broadcaster's own YouTube channel. If an owner withdraws a video, the player shows a notice; nothing is stored on this site.

Singers of the same years

Explore further with AI