Munni Begum was born Nadira Begum inMurshidabad (now inWest Bengal, India) in 1946.[1] The third child of seven children. She first started taking music lessons from the famous singer Ustad Khwaja Ghulam Mustafa Warsi. It was this music teacher who gave her this professional name due to her small size and young age. Subsequently, she studied in the school of music for three years, and thereafter, she launched her career.[4][1]
Munni Begum began her career as a singer inKarachi, Pakistan in the 1970s. She released her first album of ghazals in 1976.[4] Then she sang many more hit ghazals and thus became a renowned ghazal singer of Pakistan.[6] In her news media interviews, she always was quick-witted and bold. Even thoughUrdu language was not her mother tongue, she showed a remarkable talent for choosingghazals with simple language. This was very effective and became one of the reasons of her popularity among common people. The other reasons for her popularity were that she had a voice characterized by its clarity and strength.[4] In the 1980s, Munni Begum's rise coincided with the rapid growth of a then new technology, the cassette tape. Cassette tape prices were cheap compared to the old technology of vinyl records. On top of that, Munni Begum had a rich voice with many shades. She also was a goodharmonium player.[4]
Munni Begum was married in the 1980s which resulted in a divorce in 1998. She has two daughters, Muniba Hasnain and Minara Umer, and one son Syed Mohammad Asad Ali. As of 2016, she lives inChicago, United States and does not perform regularly.[4]
