Alam Lohar (Urdu: ‫محمد عالم لوہار‬, Punjabi: ਆਲਮ ਲੋ ਹਾਰ; 1928 – 3 July 1979) was a

prominent Punjabi folk music singer from the Punjab region of Pakistan, formerly
British India. He is credited with popularising the musical term Jugni.Early life:
Alam Lohar was born in 1928 in Achh, a village in Kharian Tehsil, Gujrat District
of Punjab, British India. He was born into a family of blacksmiths. As a child,
Lohar read Sufiana Kalaam, a collection of Punjabi stories and poetry and started
singing from a childhood age. His family and children now live all around the
world with most of his children in the UK.

Career
Alam Lohar developed a new style of singing the Punjabi Vaar, an epic or folk
tale which made him popular when he toured villages and towns in the Punjab
region. He is famous for his rendition of Waris Shah's Heer along with other
songs such as Saif-Ul-Malook. He recorded his first album at the age of 13 and
has outsold all other singers in Pakistan at the time (Verified in records kept with
HMV Pakistan 1979).
In his childhood he used to read sufiana kalaams, Punjabi stories and participate
as a young child in local elderly gatherings expressing a vocal only art form in
reading passages of great poets. From many of the gatherings out of the rural
background rose a great singer that could influence his audience with elements
of joy peace, happiness and sadness. Further he started going to festivals and
gatherings on a regular basis and within these performances he rose to become
one of the most listened to singers in South Asia during the 70s.
In the 1970s Alam Lohar started to tour different countries including United
Kingdom, Canada, Norway, United States and Germany for the South Asian
communities.

Death
Alam Lohar died in an accident near Sham ki Bhattian on 3 July 1979 when a
heavily loaded truck collided with his vehicle because the truck failed to overtake
his car. He was buried at the outskirts of Lalamusa in Pakistan. Upon the news of
his death, the President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq honoured Alam
Lohar with Pakistan's highest civil award for arts and theatre the Pride of
Performance Award in the same year.

Legacy
Alam Lohar's death was unexpected, many singers in Pakistan and India
including Lal Chand Yamla Jatt, Noor Jehan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan expressed
sadness on the passing of Alam Lohar in a television broadcast on the 10th
anniversary of Alam's death. One of Alam Lohar's Son Arif Lohar followed the
tradition of his father and is also regarded as a famous folk singer in Pakistan.
Throughout the period of 1930s and until his death in 1979 he has dominated folk
singing in Pakistan and been a major singer in Punjabi and Sufi singing
throughout the entire World. In many rural villages the local traditional people
have called him 'Sher-e-Punjab' or 'Heerah' meaning diamond.
Some of Alam lohar's songs have achieved critical acclaim and have contributed
to the music and culture of the Punjab most notably Jugni, Bol Mitti De Baweya,
Mirza Sahiban (please note he is the main Punjabi singer to bring this story in
song format singing in distinct style in 1941 - Jhori & Chimta in high pitch vocal)
Wajan Mariyan Bulaya, Saif-uk-mulook, Dil Wala Dukhra and Shahbaz
Qualander (Dhamaal). Alam Lohar is regarded as one of Pakistan's iconic
performers who still remains popular in the region.