Salman Ahmad

For the American official, see Salman Ahmed.

Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad
Background information
Birth nameSalman Ahmad
Born (1963-12-12) 12 December 1963 (age 60)
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, physician
Instrument(s)vocals, electric guitar, Electric acoustic guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
Years active1989 – present
LabelsCoke Studio, EMI Records, PTV Studios, Studio 146
Member ofJunoon band

Salman Ahmad (Urdu: سلمان احمد, born 12 December 1963) is a Pakistani born-American musician, rock guitarist, physician, activist, occasional actor and professor at the City University of New York.

He earned nationwide popularity in 1998 for his unique style of neoclassical playing in rock. An early engineer of the Vital Signs, he formed Junoon (lit. Passion) in 1990 with American bassist Brian O'Connell and pioneered the Sufi influenced rock music in Pakistan. He started his activism in the mid-1990s and has been involved in two BBC documentaries concerning the issues in Pakistan such as society, education, religion and science.[1][2][3]

He has served as the UN Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS Programme towards spreading awareness about HIV in South Asia.[4] While working with the Pakistan's media to help initiate peace between India and Pakistan, Ahmad continues to produce documentaries and solo guitar albums. At present, he is serving tenured professor at the Queens College of the City University of New York. With Junoon band being disintegrated, Salman Ahmad continues to perform as a solo artist under the "Junoon" label and has moved to New York and released one album as a solo artist, "Infiniti" in 2005.

  1. ^ Sally Quinnn (14 March 2010). "Salman Ahmad, lead singer of Pakistani band Junoon, talks Sufism, jihad and peace". The Washington Post newspaper. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NPR was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Umber Khairi (15 December 2003). "When the rock star met the mullah". BBC News website. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference UNESCO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).