- Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded. He possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high-level of intensity for several hours.
- Holds the world's record (verified by the Guinness Book of World Records) for the biggest recording output by a Qawwali artist (a total of 125 albums of recorded music).
- Brother of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan and uncle of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
- His family have been musicans and singers of Qawwali (Islamic devotional music) for six centuries. Nusrat's father, himself a singer, died in 1964 when Nusrat was about 16. His father had wanted his son to become a doctor because Qawwali is a very challenging style to learn. Ten days after his father's death, Nusrat had a dream where his father came to him and told him to sing, touching his throat. Nusrat woke up singing, and gave his first public performance at his father's funeral ceremony forty days later.
- A song of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was used in the film Mohabbat. When Akshaye and Madhuri meet in the rain.
- A song of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was first used in Yash Chopra film Nakhuda. It was filmed on actor Yunez Parvez.
- Khan had his first public performance at the age of 15, at his father's chelum.
- He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971, and brought his unique style of sargam, khayal, and rhythm to his family's legacy.
- Khan is widely credited with introducing qawwali music to international audiences.
- He was also a master in Hindustani classical music.
- His first major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured restrained use of Khan's sargam improvisations.
- Khan's family, which included four older sisters and a younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, grew up in central Faisalabad. The tradition of qawwali in the family had passed down through successive generations for almost 600 years. Initially, his father did not want Khan to follow the family's vocation. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a much more respectable career path and becoming a doctor or engineer because he felt qawwali artists had low social status. However, Khan showed such an aptitude for and interest in qawwali, that his father finally relented.
- Khan was the main performer at Imran Khan's charity appeal concert at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel on December 3, 1992 to raise funds for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, a cancer hospital built in Imran's mothers name which provides free services. Other celebrities were also in the audience including Peter Gabriel, Elizabeth Hurley, Mick Jagger, and Amitabh Bachchan.
- He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours.
- Khan contributed the song "Gurus of Peace" to the 1997 album Vande Mataram, composed by A. R. Rahman, and released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. As a posthumous tribute, Rahman later released an album titled Gurus of Peace which included "Allah Hoo" by Khan. Rahman's 2007 song "Tere Bina" for the film Guru was also composed as a tribute to Khan.
- In the summer of 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in London.
- He was primarily a singer of qawwali - a form of Sufi devotional music. Often called the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali" (the King of Kings of Qawwali).
- He performed in Paris in 1985 and 1988.
- Khan was overweight in his later years; various reports stated that he weighed over 137 kilograms (300 pounds).
- In 1971, after the death of his uncle Mubarak Ali Khan, Khan became the official leader of the family qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Khan's first public performance as the leader of the qawwali party was at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival organized by Radio Pakistan, known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha, and Hindi.
- He is considered by The New York Times to be the greatest qawwali singer of his generation.
- He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the U.S.
- He was described as the fourth greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016.
- He was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director.
- In addition to popularising qawwali music, he also had a profound impact on contemporary South Asian popular music, including Pakistani pop, Indian pop, and Bollywood music.
- Khan, throughout his career, had great understanding with many south Asian artists such as Alam Lohar, Noor Jehan, A. R. Rahman, Asha Bhosle, Javed Akhtar, and Lata Mangeshkar.
- He was the fifth child and first son of Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and qawwal.
- He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.
- He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist.
- In the 1992 to 1993 academic year, Khan was a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States.
- He first visited Japan in 1987, at the invitation of the Japan Foundation. He performed at the 5th Asian Traditional Performing Art Festival in Japan.
- He was called the 'Singing Buddha' in Tokyo, 'The Voice of Paradise' in Los Angeles, 'Quintessence of the Human Voice' in Tunis, 'The Spirit of Islam' in London, 'Pavarotti of the East' in Paris, 'Emperor of Qawwali' (Shahenshah - e - Qawwali) in Lahore.
- Khan was listed at position 91 on Rolling Stone's 200 Best Singers Of All Time list, which was published on January 1, 2023.
- The 2018 book The Displaced Children of Displaced Children (Eyewear Publishing) by Pakistani American poet Faisal Mohyuddin includes the poem "Faisalabad", a tribute to Khan and to the city of Khan's birth. "Faisalabad" includes a number or references to Khan, including the excerpt, "There are no better cures for homesickness / than Nusrat's qawwalis, / except when you're a mother / and you find comfort in the unfolding / hours of a child's existence." The poem was first published by Narrative Magazine in Spring 2017.
- Despite the significant number of hit Bollywood songs plagiarized from his music, he was reportedly tolerant towards the plagiarism. In one interview, he jokingly gave "Best Copy" awards to Viju Shah and Malik. In his defense, Malik claimed that he loved Khan's music and was actually showing admiration by using his tunes.
- One of Khan's famous qawwali songs, "Tere Bin Nahin Lagda" ("I am restless without you"), appeared on two of his 1996 albums, Sorrows Vol. 69 and Sangam (as "Tere Bin Nahin Lagda Dil"), the latter a collaborative album with Indian lyricist Javed Akhtar; Sangam sold over 1 million copies in India.
- Khan was reportedly aggrieved when Anu Malik turned his spiritual "Allah Hoo, Allah Hoo" into "I Love You, I Love You" in Auzaar. Khan said "he has taken my devotional song Allahu and converted it into I love you. He should at least respect my religious songs.".
- On 13 October 2015, Google celebrated Khan's 67th birthday with a doodle on its homepage in six countries, including India, Pakistan, Japan, Sweden, Ghana, and Kenya, calling him the person "who opened the world's ears to the rich, hypnotic sounds of the Sufis." "Thanks to his legendary voice, Khan helped bring 'world music' to the world," said Google.
- Paul Williams picked a concert performance by Khan for inclusion in his 2000 book The 20th Century's Greatest Hits: a 'top-40' list, in which he devotes a chapter each to what he considers the top 40 artistic achievements of the 20th century in any field (including art, movies, music, fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction).
- Jeff Buckley cited Khan as a major influence, saying of him "He's my Elvis", and performing the first few minutes of Khan's "Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai" (including vocals) at live concerts.
- Khan is often credited as one of the progenitors of "world music." Widely acclaimed for his spiritual charisma and distinctive exuberance, he was one of the first and most important artists to popularize qawwali, then considered an "arcane religious tradition", to Western audiences.
- In 2004, a tribute band called Brooklyn Qawwali Party (formerly Brook's Qawwali Party) was formed in New York City by percussionist Brook Martinez to perform the music of Khan. The 13-piece group still performs mostly instrumental jazz versions of Khan's qawwalis, using the instruments conventionally associated with jazz rather than those associated with qawwali.
- In August 2010 he was included in CNN's list of the twenty most iconic musicians from the past fifty years.[.
- In 2008, Khan was listed in 14th position in UGO's list of the best singers of all time.
- In February 2016, a rough mix of a song recorded by Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998 called "Circle of the Noose" was leaked to the internet. Guitarist Dave Navarro described the song saying, "It's pop in the sense of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, hook. I really love it and we use a loop of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It's really nice. The best way I can describe it is it's like pepped- up '60s folk with '90s ideals, but I would hate to label it as folk because it's not, it moves.".
- In 2005, Khan posthumously received the "Legends" award at the UK Asian Music Awards.
- Many honorary titles were bestowed upon Khan during his 25-year music career. He was given the title of Ustad (the master) after performing classical music at a function in Lahore on the anniversary of his father's death.
- In 1998, he was awarded PTV Life Time Achievement Award.
- In 1997, he was nominated for two Grammy Awards, for Best Traditional Folk Album and Best World Music Album.
- Time magazine's issue of 6 November 2006, "60 Years of Asian Heroes", lists him as one of the top 12 artists and thinkers in the last 60 years.
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