Imran Khan was born 28 May 1984. He is born in The Netherlands in a city called The Hague. His parents came from the city of Gujranwala, Punjab in Pakistan and settled in The Hague in the early 1970’s.
Khans love for music was evident from a very early age. He started his career in his early teenage years. In 2005 Khan met up with an old friend called Shahid Mazhar who is based in United Kingdom. It was here when Khan showed his abilities to Shahid. Shahid was impressed with what he had heard and decided to take Imran to Pakistan.
Later that year Shahid took Imran to Lahore in Pakistan to give his music a kick start and to complete his first album working with the biggest and most popular music production teams in Pakistan. After working day and night in the studio for almost 2 months a 8 track album was mastered. However, after hearing the final product Khan was not impressed with the the album. But did not want to mention this to Shahid as he felt alot of time and money was invested in this album and did not want any negative feedback. But after hard thinking Khan decided to be honest and explained his reasons for not being happy and content with the album. He thought the album was too traditional for his sound and decided not to go ahead with this. Shahid agreed with Khans thoughts and ideas and decided that this album would not be released.
This left Khan very confused and low in self esteem. But Khan didn’t give up on his passion for music and so thought of other ideas to pursue his dream.
Khan returned from Pakistan to the Netherlands in early 2006. After a series of meetings and discussions they decided to give the album a more urban feel if they were to make a big impact.
In mid 2006 Khan came to the UK, to work on his debut single. But it was the same old story and again Khan was not happy with the final product. Shahid was beginning to think that this might be a waste of time and effort, which was hard to take for Imran. Khan was now back to square one and was very low in confidence. Khan made his way back to Holland back to the drawing board. Later that year Khan met up with a friend ( Fikret) and explained the situation and events that have occurred in the last few months. Fikret had advised Imran that he knew a Turkish producer called Eren E, and who could possibly be the answer to your solution.
Fikret contacted Eren E and introduced Imran to him at his house. After hours of talking and discussing music Imran had found his right sound through Eren E. In the next few days Eren E invited Imran to his house were they created a quick demo named ‘ Ni Nachleh ‘. Imran and the team were confident and knew that this sound was what they was looking for.
After several months in on June 27th 2007 Prestige records,(which is owned by Shahid ) released Ni Nachleh. The single quickly reached number 1 on various UK Asian radio and television channels across the globe. It was now that a new bar was set by Khan. Khan later that year found himself performing all over the world for large audiences with just the one single to his name. Pressure had quickly come with the success and Khan himself felt exhausted with travelling and the lifestyle that he was adapting to. Khan was starting to get a lot of critics calling him a one hit wonder, which really put him down but his character was again tested, knowing exactly how much he had been through just to get one single to his name.
Khan decided to take time away from the scene and to complete his album which he knew would take quite a while. The hype for Imrans album was becoming the talk of all major music websites and forums. Khan spent days and nights in the studio working on his forthcoming album which was revealed would be named Unforgettable and would be a 15 track album. The album included three tracks from Hakan Ozan ( Bewafa, Qott ghusian da and Nai Raina) the rest of the album was produced by Eren E.
On the 12th July 09 Prestige records released ‘Amplifier ‘which would be Khans second OFFICIAL release. Amplifier quickly became the most played song on all major TV stations and radio stations across the globe, and had hit the 2 million view mark on Youtube in only 1 week. It currently stands at almost 14 million hits.
A few months later after the amazing success of Amplifier , Prestige released ‘ Bewafa ‘ on the 30th November. Khan decided to release this track as it was a complete opposite of his previous tracks.
It was more a slow jam with a lot of emotion. The video was shot in Mayfair, Central London. The track was yet another worldwide smash hit and this was now only Khans third track of the album. The video won a lot of accolades including a number 1 in the FunFX chart. The track itself has a view count of almost 10 million hits on YouTube, which for a Punjabi artist is unheard of.
On July 2009, The day Imran’s dream had finally become a reality it was the RELEASE of his eagerly anticipated debut album ‘ UNFORGETTABLE ‘ The album was released having used two producers, Eren E and Hakan Ozan. The album had become a phenomenon in the whole industry and infact was in the top 5 in the OFFICIAL I tunes album chart.
Khan did an album signing tour of the UK , which included all major cities where he met fans of all races and ages. This was very pleasing to Khan on a personal level as his dream was actually becoming a reality. Khans unique music style had appealed to all sorts people not just the younger generation, most of all seeing non Asian people was very nice to see. Khan was very happy with the progress being made and did several interviews for magazines and TV stations across the UK including Brit Asia TV, BBC , and B4U to name a few.
Imrans Unique style was being recognized worldwide and he was awarded with the Anokhi Magazines ‘Musical Artist Of The Year‘ award. The ceremony was held in Canada on February 8th 2010. After winning his award Imran performed his smash hit single ‘ Amplifier ‘ to a full seated audience. Imran was honoured and was rightfully over the moon for winning this prestigious award.
In March 2010 Imrans success was becoming clearer to see he was up for four awards in the UK AMA awards which is the equivalent of the mobo awards in the Asian music scene. Imran WON the best desi act of the year and was overjoyed with the success he had in his very short but destructive career to date. The BBC actually stated that Imran was the ‘ highlight ‘ of the evening. His LIVE performance included a snake draped around his neck. More info
Amongst a list of admirers of Khan is WBA World light-welterweight champion Amir Khan who was full of praise for fellow Khan after his jaw dropping performance he stated ‘ I was never into Punjabi music, until Imran came into this industry.
Two months after winning the best desi act award at the UK AMA , Imran won the best album award at the Brit Asia Awards 2010 which were held in May 2010 at Symphony Hall in Birmingham. Imran unfortunately was ill and was not able to attend the ceremony therefore his award was received on his behalf by producer and friend Eren E.
Khan’s rise has seen him become a household name amongst the Asian population all over the world. Imran toured his native Pakistan in June 2010 and left his mark on thousands of people after doing a staggering thirty shows in one month. Most notably Imran performed at a show called ‘ AMPLIFIED ‘ which was sponsored by Pepsi and was viewed LIVE on national Televison. M
Imran Khan World carried out their own charity concert 2010 for the flood victims of Pakistan in London on 15th October 2010. Highlighting the suffering of millions of flood victims and the need for continuing aid for the displaced.UNICEF and James Caan were OFFICIAL partners for this great and noble cause. Imrans work was appreciated and was congratulated by Unicef personally. Charity work is very important to Imran and he is very committed to the cause of helping people in need.
Khan decided to become independent in January 2011, he OFFICIALLY left Prestige Records and is now in the process of creating his own record label. Khan left Prestige Records on a mutual consent and is full of praise for Shahid Mazhar who had the trust and belief in Khan back in 2005. Khan still has a great relationship and has the upmost respect for Shahid and refers to him a ‘ father figure ‘. Khan now has his own company called IMRANKHANWORLD B.V and he believes this is a start of something new in his life.
Khan’s future plans is to get his music on a commercial level using Punjabi vocals, he has had a lot of offers from all over the world artists for collaborations but Imran himself has targeted the commercial scene and him and his team believe strongly that Khan will be successful in whatever he decides to do.
RnB, Dancehall, Hip Hop, House, and Pop music is Khans influence and he uses these influences to create something new and fresh, he wants to be remembered as someone that created a new era for up and coming artists. Away from music, Khan is very keen on his own clothing line and has also launched his own label “IK Records” late in 2012.
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