Arieb Azhar makes NAPA audience relive folk poetry

Folk singer and musicologist Arieb Azhar on Thursday gave a musical presentation at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) on folk music and Sufi poetry.

He opened with recalling how his childhood interaction with Punjabi and Sindhi folk singers of those times made him interested in the genre even though his own mother tongue was Urdu.

He then took the audience to a journey of folk music, starting with Baba Farid, going through Guru Nanak, Shah Hussain and Sultan Bahu, and then focusing on Bulleh Shah before talking about his contemporary Waris Shah. He even sang Faiz while discussing Bulleh Shah. His address was interspersed with folk songs. A sizable audience erupted into applause from time to time during the performance.