Laila was born on 17 November 1952 inSylhet,East Bengal,Dominion of Pakistan (present-dayBangladesh). Her father Syed Mohammed Imdad Ali belonged to aBengali family ofMuslimSyeds fromRajshahi. He was a civil servant posted in various towns such as Sylhet andKarachi. Her mother, Amina Laila (née Anita Sen), was a musical artist and came from a Bengali Hindu family based inUpper Assam.[9][10][11] Her maternal uncle,Subir Sen, was a notable Indian playback singer. She started taking dance lessons ofKathak andBharatanatyam genre. In those days,Ahmed Rushdi was the leading film singer who introducedrock n roll,disco and other modern genres toSouth Asian music. Following Rushdi's success,Christian bands specialising injazz started performing at various night clubs and hotel lobbies[12] in Karachi,Hyderabad,Mumbai,Dhaka andLahore. Laila became a fan of singer Ahmed Rushdi whom she considered her guru (teacher), and tried to emulate not only his singing style but also the way he used to perform on the stage.[3] She then learned classical music with her elder sister Dina Laila (d. 1976).[3][13][14]While she was a student ofSaint Lawrence Convent, she won an inter-school singing competition in Karachi in the thenWest Pakistan.[15] She, along with her sister, were trained by Ustad Abdul Kader Peyarang and Ustad Habibuddin Ahmed.[15] Her cousin, Anjumara Begum, had already been a known singer.[15] When Laila was 12, she performed as a playback singer for a male child actor in the Urdu language filmJugnu.[15] The song was titledGudia Si Munni Meri.[16]
Sabina Yasmin & Runa Laila receiving awards fromSheikh Hasina at Bangladesh National Film Awards ceremony in 2015.
In 1966, Laila made her breakthrough in the Pakistani film industry with the songUnki Nazron Sey Mohabbat Ka Jo Paigham Mila for the Urdu filmHum Dono.[17][18] She used to perform onPTV.[19] In PTV, she had a show calledBazm E Laila.[15] She started appearing on theZia Mohyuddin Show (1972–74) and later sang songs for films in the 1970s such as the filmUmrao Jaan Ada (1972).
Laila moved to Bangladesh along with her family in 1974.[15] Her first Bengali song wasO Amar Jibon Shathi for the film Jibon Shathi (1976), composed bySatya Saha.[15] Shortly after had her first concert in India in 1974 in Mumbai.[20] She started in Bollywood with directorJaidev, whom she met in Delhi, got her the chance to play at the inauguration ofDoordarshan.[3] She first worked with the music composerKalyanji-Anandji for the title song of a film calledEk Se Badhkar Ek (1976).[21] She gained popularity in India with the songsO Mera Babu Chail Chabila andDama Dam Mast Qalandar.[22] In 1974, she recordedShaadher Lau in Kolkata.[23] Laila's name has been written on theGuinness World Records for recording 30 songs within 3 days.[16] In 1982, she won Golden Disk Award as her album Superuna composed byBappi Lahiri was sold over 1 lakh copies on the first day of its release.[16]
In October 2009, Laila releasedKala Sha Kala, a collection of Punjabi wedding songs, in India.[24] In 2012, Laila served as a judge on the show Sur Kshetra, an Indian television contest show for amateur singers.[25] She described her relationship with fellow judgeAsha Bhosle as that of sisters.[26] In 2014, she collaborated withSabina Yasmin on a song for a television play"Dalchhut Projapoti", the first time they worked on a song together.[27][28] Laila has sung in seventeen languages including her nativeBengali,Hindi,Urdu,Punjabi,Sindhi,Gujarati,Pashto,Baluchi,Arabic,Persian,Malay,Nepalese,Japanese,Italian,Spanish,French and English.[4]
Laila has been married three times. She first married Khawaja Javed Kaiser, secondly a Swiss citizen named Ron Daniel and then actorAlamgir. She has a daughter Tani.[3] Her grandson Zain Islam had been selected for the Arsenal progression center in 2012 when he was eight. Her other grandson Aaron Islam is also there.[29]
After her sister died in 1976 from cancer, Laila held several charity concerts in Dhaka. The money raised was used to build a cancer hospital in Dhaka.[3][4] Laila was named aSAARC Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS.[30] She is the first Bangladeshi to hold this post.[31] She visited New Delhi in 2013 on her first trip as the SAARC ambassador. She met India's External and Health ministers.[32]
^abcSanskriti Website."Runa Laila".KOA Music Section. Kashmiri Overseas Association (KOA). Archived fromthe original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved16 June 2015.
^Arnold, Alison (2000).The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Taylor & Francis. pp. 420–421.ISBN0-8240-4946-2.
^Gulzar; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterji, Saibal (2003).Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema. Popular Prakashan. pp. 532–533.ISBN81-7991-066-0.
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