Singer - Kuldeep Manak Punjabi Singer Profile

Kuldeep Manak was born as Latif Mohammed on November 15, 1951, in village Jalal of Bhatinda district. His father, Nikka Khan, was a singer too. Manak left Bhatinda and went to Ludhiana to
pursue his career as a singer. His illustrious career in music began when the 17-year-old was chosen to sing alongside famed vocalist Seema in 1968. This proved to be Kuldeep’s lucky break and he went on to forge a successful career in the music industry racking up hit singles and albums and collaborating with other artists. During the bhangra star’s heyday in the 1980’s and 1990’s be developed a reputation for singing the traditional Punjabi genre of music known as Kaliyan. Despite being in his 60’s, Ustad Kuldeep Manak’s desire to sing never faded and his most recent project saw him collaborate with established bhangra artist, Jazzy B on his new album Maharajas. He died on November 30, 2011

In popular culture

On 25 December 2012, a tribute single was released by Aman Hayer under Moviebox Records with the title The Folk King (subtitle Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji Tribute) and featured a number of artists interpreting his songs, the track was first played and performed at the Britasia Music Awards 2012 by Angrej Ali who started the song with 'Vaar Banda Bahadur' which Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji used to start his shows with, Malkit Singh - 'G.T. Road Te', Sukshinder Shinda - 'Maa Hundi Ae Maa', A.S Kang - 'Chitiyan Sahiba Jatti Ne' Manmohan Waris - 'Sahiba Bani Bharaawa Di', Balwinder Safri - 'Nakhre Bin Sohni' and the final song sang in this tribute was 'Tere Tille Ton' by Jazzy B, a close student of Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji.

In films

He also acted and sung in many Punjabi films like 'Saidan Jogan' (1979) with the song, sathon naee majhin chaar hundian, 'Lambardaarni' (1980) with yaaran da truck balliye (song), and Balbiro Bhabi (1981) as actor, singer and composer. He also sung a song, "ajj dhee ik raje di", in the 1983 film Sassi Punnu

Politics

Manak also took part in the parliament elections of 1996 as an independent member from Bathinda but did not win.

Family

Manak's father, Nikka Khan, was a singer himself. Manak had two brothers: Siddqui, a devotional singer, and Rafiq, arrested in 2003 for raping a 6 year old child, who was also briefly noted. Kuldeep Manak's ancestors were the Hazoori Raagis (designated cantors) of Kirtan for Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha.

He was married to Sarabjeet and had two children, a son named Yudhvir Manak and a daughter named Shakti. They both are married. Yudhvir is following in his father's footsteps as a singer.
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