Artist: Roquaiya Hasina Neel

Roquaiya Hasina Neely has been a renowned Rabindra Sangeet singer of Bangladesh for sometime having won the hearts of many connoisseurs. She is also an accomplished presenter of the songs of Atul Prasad, D L Roy, Rajani Kanta and classical Bangla songs. Neely is well known for presenting Tagore songs in its pure form. She has the quality of singing songs with unwavering voice. Neely was born in Birbhum of West Bengal in India on November 5, 1959. She started learning songs at the age of seven from a music teacher in Birbhum. Later her parents moved to the then East Pakistan. Her father Rashidul Hasan who was a teacher of English in Dhaka University was her inspiration. Rashidul Hasan liked Tagore songs very much and it was his dream that his daughter would one day be an artist of Tagore song. Unfortunately he was picked up by the anti-liberation elements from his Dhaka University residence on December the 14th, 1971 and later was brutally killed. Roquaiya Hasina did not forget her father's wish and continued learning music. She finished a five-year course in music from Chhayanat. She also obtained Master of Social Sciences in Sociology from Dhaka University in 1983. She was fortunate to receive music lessons from revered music composer and teacher of the subcontinent Abdul Ahad, Music Guru Wahidul Haque, Zahedur Rahim, Ajit Roy; and Tagore specialist Dr Sanjida Khatun. Roquaiya started performing in Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television (BTV) in 1976. Now she is a special grade artist in BTV and Betar. Neely had been teaching for many years at Chhayanat. She is now teaching as adjunct faculty at the Sarkari Sangeet Mohabidyalay in Dhaka. She also sings in different private TV channels. Roquaiya Neely performed at Aaj Shokalar Amontrane of Tara Muzik, Kolkata. Roquaiya Hasina presented Tagore songs as a solo artist in New York at a function marking the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of winning Nobel Prize of Rabindranath Tagore. Along with Dr Sanjida Khatun and Banani Ghosh, Neely sang Tagore songs as an invited artist in Rabindra Mela in New Jersey, US in 1988. Neely also participated as a solo artist in many cultural functions arranged by different Bengali associations in Canada. The expatriates liked her song and revered her so much that they took initiatives to record her songs and released one music album from Canada in 1988. O-series arranged six cultural evenings in Dhaka where Neely performed as a solo artist. Neely received the prestigious Citycell-Channel i music award for best vocal in Rabindra Sangeet. So far her five music albums have been released. Neely lives in BUET residence with her two daughters and her husband Professor Shahidul Hassan. Roquaiya Neely wishes that she would continue entertaining the music lovers by her performance and also to work with Dr Sanjida Khatun and others in their drives to spread Tagore songs at home and abroad. (Dr M M Shahidul Hassan is a professor of BUET and can be reached at email: shassan@eee.buet.ac.bd)