Runa Laila

In 1966, Laila made her breakthrough in the Pakistani film industry with the song Unki Nazron Sey Mohabbat Ka Jo Paigham Mila for the Urdu film Hum Dono. She used to perform on PTV. In PTV, she had a show called Bazm E Laila. She started appearing on the Zia Mohyuddin Show (1972–74) and later sang songs for films in the 1970s such as the film Umrao Jaan Ada (1972).

Laila moved to Bangladesh along with her family in 1974. Her first Bengali song was O Amar Jibon Shathi for the film Jibon Shathi (1976), composed by Satya Saha. Shortly after had her first concert in India in 1974 in Mumbai. She started in Bollywood with director Jaidev, whom she met in Delhi, got her the chance to play at the inauguration of Doordarshan. She first worked with the music composer Kalyanji-Anandji for the title song of a film called Ek Se Badhkar Ek (1976). She gained popularity in India with the songs O Mera Babu Chail Chabila and Dama Dam Mast Qalandar. In 1974, she recorded Shaadher Lau in Kolkata. Laila's name has been written on the Guinness World Records for recording 30 songs within 3 days. In 1982, she won Golden Disk Award as her album Superuna composed by Bappi Lahiri was sold over 1 lakh copies on the first day of its release.

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. Laila was named a SAARC Goodwill Ambassadors for HIV/AIDS. She is the first Bangladeshi to hold this post. She visited New Delhi in 2013 on her first trip as the SAARC ambassador. She met India's External and Health ministers.

In October 2009, she released Kala Sha Kala, a collection of Punjabi wedding songs, in India. In 2012, Laila served as a judge on the show Sur Kshetra, an Indian television contest show for amateur singers. She described her relationship with fellow judge Asha Bhosle as that of sisters. In 2014, she collaborated with Sabina Yasmin on a song for a television play "Dalchhut Projapoti", the first time they worked on a song together. Runa has sung in seventeen languages including her native Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Pashto, Baluchi, Arabic, Persian, Malay, Nepalese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French and English.

Laila has been married three times. She first married Khawaza Javed Kaiser, secondly a Swiss citizen named Ron Daniel and then actor Alamgir. She has a daughter Tani. Her grandson Zain Islam had been selected for the Arsenal progression center in 2012 when he was eight.

It’s Runa Laila’s birthday

Today is the 63th anniversary of birth of legendary singer Runa Laila. The iconic singer will celebrate her birthday in a homely manner with her daughter, Tani Laila, and her grandchildren in London. Runa Laila started receiving birthday wishes from her nearest ones, followers and well-wishers from a day before her birth anniversary. Runa Laila, most popular singer of the South Asian music, play backed a thousands of song. Laila started her singing career in the year 1967, though she has been singing since she was six.