The soft-spoken Haroon Bacha, who has striking green eyes and short brown curls, is a slightly unusual figure as a Pashtun star; he has a university education and, unlike most Pashtun singers, he does not come from a family of musicians.
Haroon Bacha has rapidly made his own space on YouTube, having released a number of songs that have gone viral and gained popularity on the social media platform.
Unsurprisingly, that has resulted in the veteran Pashto singer becoming the most popular artist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on YouTube.
Haroon Bacha becomes the most popular Pashto singer on YouTube
Prominent Pashto singer Haroon Bacha has set a major record on YouTube, surpassing 100k subscribers on his official channel on the video-sharing site. He is one of the few Pashtun solo artist to have reached such a milestone. Ali Baba Khan, another young Pashtun musician stands second to Haroon Bacha with a total of 92.3k subscibers.
Haroon Bacha has constantly remained a favorite of many Pashto music fans for decades, which is a reflection of his versatility and success in his music career. His music videos have been gaining increased viewership among the old folks and the youngsters alike.
On Monday, the Pashto singer took it to his official Facebook fan page to share the achievement with his fans. Bacha also expressed his gratitude and promised to be a more active YouTuber.
Bacha posted a screenshot of his YouTube channel showing the number of subscribers, along with a message for his fans and supporters in the caption of the post.
“May my strength to create new music and your love for me never end,” the caption read.
Fans were thrilled to hear the news and congratulated him.
Before setting the latest record, Bacha set a YouTube record with “Stergery Ghazal” which became most popular Pashto song on YouTube when the music video drew over 5.5 million hits, becoming the most-viewed Pashto music video on the global video sharing platform.
As of May 17, 2021, his songs “Ma Wey Nen Ba Haal” and “Haroon Bacha – Tapey 2017” have also attracted nearly 1.5 million views on YouTube.
From fleeing the country to becoming the most celebrated artist, Bacha’s career is an inspiring story for many
Haroon Bacha’s professional music career started in 1992 with a live television performance in Peshawar, Pakistan. Four years later, Bacha released his debut album, “Da Rangoono Makhaam”, in 1996. His second music album “Ghunchakoona” was also released the same year.
Since then, he has released more than 50 music albums. Some of his albums include: “Heele”, “Ulas Janaan Kra” and “Darman”. Bacha has also gifted his fans with a number of popular single tracks such as “Speena Kaotara”, which was released in the United States in 2011.
Bacha’s career came to a standstill in 2007 when he received multiple threats from the Taliban. The Taliban demanded that Bacha quit his music career and threatened to kill him along with his family if he continues to sing. These death threats from the Taliban continued for almost one year until on 14 August 2008, Bacha fled his home and went to Brooklyn, New York, where he sought political asylum.
“There were letters, there were phone calls, there were text messages,” Mr. Bacha recalls in an interview ith The New York Times, sitting upright on a floor in Brooklyn, surrounded by smoke from Pakistani cigarettes. “They used to come very frequently back home, just telling me to stop music, or else I would be killed and my family would be. …”
Besides his music career, Bacha has also been a broadcaster with Radio Liberty’s Mashaal Radio.
His journey as a singer ranges from selling CDs and cassettes of his albums back in the 90s to becoming the most popular Pashto singer on YouTube. Due to his versatile singing skills, Haroon Bacha has rightfully become a veteran Pashto singer over the years. Almost a decade after his debut album, Bacha still stands as one of the most sought-after singers in present times in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The prominent folk singer originally belongs to Panjpir Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where he was born on born July 27, 1972. Bacha did not come from a music family but he had learnt intricacies of music from the local amateur folk singers. Inspired from him, his nephew Gulwareen Bacha has also chosen music as a career.
