The biography below of Asa Singh Mastana was taken from the ‘Panj Pedia’ website.
Asa Singh Mastana was a Punjabi musician and singer, best known for lending his voice to the hit Bollywood film Heer, and singing Jugni and Heer-genre of folk songs. He became popular in the 1940s, and had reached cult status by the mid-1960s, when state-run All India Radio started promoting folk musicians.
Asa Singh Mastana was born on 22nd August, 1927, in the village of Sheikhupura, Pakistan to his mother, Mata Amrit Kaur and father Sardar Pritam Singh. After the partition of India-Pakistan, his family started living in Delhi. During this time, Mastana received his musical education from Pandit Durga Prasad. While learning music, he also had a government job in a bank at Chandni Chowk, Delhi. He retired prematurely from the Reserve Bank of India in Delhi in 1981 to pursue music.
In the year 1949, his first song “Tattiye Hawayein Ni Tu Kehre Paseyon Ayi Hain” was broadcast on the radio. After that, he sang many evergreen popular songs. His well-known songs, among others “Balle Ni Panjaab Diye Sher Bachiye”, “Doli Charhdeyan Marian Heer Cheekaan” and “Kali Teri Gut”, have served as templates for later Punjabi musicians. His great work also expands to singing sad songs like “Jadon Meri Arthi Utha Ke Chalan Ge” to the famous song “Main Jatt Yamla Pagla Deewana” dramatized by Dharmendra. He was mostly paired with Surinder Kaur or Prakash Kaur for singing many old folk songs of Punjab.
Asa Singh Mastana died on 23rd May, 1999, due to a long standing illness, but he will always be remembered for his sweet voice.
Among the honours that have been awarded to Asa Singh Mastana are the Dilgir Award of the Government of Punjab in 1981, The Punjabi Academy Award and Padma Shri in 1985. For his eminence in the field of music and his contribution to its enrichment, Shri Asa Singh Mastana received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Folk music of Punjab in 1986.
Although mainly remembered for his folk songs, Asa Singh Mastana also released several Gurbani records which are being shared on this page.
The two Shabads below were released by Colombia Records in 1962 (Record number: GE 26546). Please ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’ to download audio files. Enjoy!
Asa Singh Mastana – 01 Aval Allah Noor Upaaya
Asa Singh Mastana – 02 Sadho Rachna Ram Banaye
The two Shabads below are from a record released in 1970.