Audiogrammes

I love exotic Disco hits, or new edits of old disco tracks. I find a lot of great stuff on the BCE’s blog. They recently posted some great vintage Lebanese Disco and as I was looking for similar links when I discovered Nazia Hassan





Disco Deewane is one of her biggest hits. She was Pakistani but sang in Urdu and Hindi. She started as a Playback singer when she was 15! Here’s the download link for Aap Jaisa Koi, however you have to watch the video below: it’s her voice but it’s not her on stage. The movie is Qurbani, Bollywood’s biggest movie of 1980!





Anyway, so this young girl and her brother Zoheb were launched by Biddu, a legendary Indian music producer. His biggest achievement was producing Kung-Fu Fighting, Carl Douglas’ only hit in 1974. Perhaps you know the Cee-Lo Green + Jack Black version from the Kung Fu Panda soundtrack?





This track surfed the chopsocky wave AND was the first mainstream disco hit. So when disco died in the West, Biddu returned to India and launched the whole 80s Bollywood Disco fever. If you go back up and listen to Disco Deewane, it sounds a lot like Kung Fu Fighting (especially the Uh-Huhs…). The album was a huge hit around the world with 60 million copies sold?! Check out some of the different covers for the latin american versions here and here.

In my opinion, her best track is Boom Boom. You could say it’s Bollywood’s take on Donna Summer’s I Feel Love





The only sad part of this post is that Nazia Hassan passed away in August 2000. She had stopped singing and had dedicated her life to charity organizations and to her family. She was only 35. Here’s the Guardian obituary and a beautiful tribute I found online.