Rabi Ahmed is a Pakistani music producer, songwriter and guitarist. He is also a band member of the famous music band Soch, along with Adnan Dhool.
Wiki/Biography
Rabi Ahmed was born on 17 January in Lahore, Pakistan. His zodiac sign is Capricorn. According to him, he always had an interest in music and his room used to be full of Music CDs, guitar tutorial books, and self-tutorial musical guides. The walls in his room had posters of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, and Santana.
Childhood picture of Rabi Ahmed sitting in his mother’s lap
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 9″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Not much is known about Rabi’s parents and family. He mentioned in an interview that he is the eldest of his siblings and loves to take care of them. According to him, his mother is his best friend and his dad is his biggest morale-booster and they are the two pillars in his life.
Rabi Ahmed with his father and younger brother
Religious Views
Rabi posted on Instagram to give the greetings of Eid. He wrote,
As long as we keep faith in HIM, no evil can touch our heart and no sorrow can ruin our day.”
He also posted about uniting the people with religion while wishing Ramdaan Mubarak on Instagram. He said,
Let the religion unite us for the purpose of humanity and kindness rather than dividing us in the name of beliefs .”
Career
Rabi started his music journey with his debut single titled Bundeya in December 2012. He then appeared in Nescafe Basement season 1 in the same year, where he played the song Awari with his band member Adnan Dhool. The song was such a hit that the producer of the show Xulfi sent the track to Mohit Suri, the director of the Bollywood movie, Ek Villain. He loved the song and approached both the band members with the opportunity to revamp the song for his movie, Ek Villain. In an interview, Rabi revealed the backstory and said,
We were approached by the producers. Both the production house and Mohit Suri totally loved the song, so Adnan and I went through a series of discussions and brainstorming and revamped it to suit the requirements of Ek Villain”
The song became very popular among the fans and Rabi’s band earned 4 nominations in the best music direction category in 2015. The song gained worldwide success and so did the member of the Soch band, Rabi Ahmed and Adnan Dhool. In response to the appreciation, Rabi said,
The response has been upbeat and we are overwhelmed. Awari is being lauded and applauded worldwide. We are so humbled by the appreciation and attention from people from all walks of life.”
In 2016, Rabi decided to give his time and effort to the Pakistani music industry therefore his band wrote, composed, and produced 4 songs out of 7 for the musical romantic film ‘Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai’. Later, he made several hit songs such as Tera Deewana (2021), Befikrey (2019), Dushman E Jaan (slow), etc.
In February 2019, Rabi released his song ‘Bol hu’ on the first episode of Nescafe Basement season 5 which got featured in the Bollywood thriller Malang.
Rabi Ahmed performing in the Nescafe Basement Season 5
One of the most prominent and prolific singers of the Indian music industry, Sonu Nigam got teary-eyed while listening to this song. He shared a video on social media while reacting to the song and said that he is moved by the vocals and the lyrics of the song, which seems next to impossible in this modern era.
Getting praised by Sonu, Rabi responded by reposting the video on his Instagram handle with the caption,
We have grown up following you and listening your music so it’s like a dream come true.”
Xulfi who is the producer of Nescafe Basement also took to Facebook and expressed his gratitude to Sonu for his honest reaction to the song. He also thanked the ace singer for motivating the artists of the song. He said,
I don’t only have one thing to thank him for, there are multiple things. The first thing I would want to thank him for is the way his reaction must have elated the spirits of Adnan, Rabi and Hadia. There’s no comparison to that. They would want to work even more seriously towards their dreams. God has given you a gift; do not let it go to waste.”
Rabi Ahmed along with his co-bandmember Adnan appeared in the 5th season of Coke Studio and collaborated with the Butt brothers to make the 14th song of the season, ‘Neray Neray Vas’. The song was originally a mellow track created by Rabi and Adnan in the mid-2000s, which was revamped into a flamboyant bhangra-style track by using Harmonium, Tumbi, Matka and Chimtas. Rabi clarified in an interview that he and his band member decided to transform the original mellow and soulful song into a peppy number because they didn’t want to be labelled as a Sufi band only.
Rabi Ahmed in Coke Studio Season 14
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- Nominated for Best Music Direction category at the 16th IIFA Awards
- Nominated at the Life Ok Screen Award (2015)
- Nominated for Best Music Direction category at the Filmfare Awards (2015)
- Nominated at GIMA Awards (2015)
Favourites
- Food: Mother’s home-cooked chicken karahi
- Actor: Adam Sandler and Al Pacino
- Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts
- Film genre: Action and Adventure
- Singer: AR Rahman, RD Burman, SD Burman, Junoon, and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
- Music: Jazz
- Sport: Cricket
- Book: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Facts/Trivia
- Rabi Ahmed was the first person to represent Pakistan at IIFA along with his band member in the 16th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, which were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Rabi Ahmed at IIFA Awards with the team of Ek Villain (third from left)
- Rabi’s band Soch attracted attention for featuring a transgender model in the music video of their song ‘Dholna’.
- When asked in an interview about his favourite musician, Rabi said,
AR Rahman is one musician whose versatility no one can come close to. Every note and composition he comes up with is so out-of-this-world.”
- When asked about the possibility of him acting, Rabi says that he is camera conscious and has no interest in acting as such.
- Rabi has earned a loyal fanbase and has over 15 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 98 thousand subscribers on the official youtube channel of his band Soch.
- While talking about the condition of the Pakistani music industry, Rabi says,
Over the years, we have had people gradually coming up from the self-taught community of musicians. We initially had music being taught and the art of music being passed on only from generation to generation within the family. It is only recently that circumstances as well as the society has paved the way for self-taught musicians and talents like ourselves.”
