Annie Jilani
Annie Jilani is an American Bangladeshi singer and lyricist. She sings Adhunik bangla, ghazals, nazrul geeti, Bollywood OSTs and English classical songs.
Early life and background
Annie Jilani was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is daughter of Late Mr. Mohammad Nurul Islam, the founder and chairman of Flora Limited. Her singing inspiration came from her mother at early age. She received her initial training from Bulbul Lalitakala Academy (BAFA) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Afterwards, she received personal training from Ustad Pulin Babu to polish her singing skills further.
After marriage, Annie Jilani moved to USA with her wonderful husband in early 80s and later settled down in California. Currently, she has one son and one daughter. She earned her bachelor's degree in computer information systems from DeVry University, Pomona, California. She worked with Bank of America, US Bank and later on, joined IBM.
Career
Her first album was "Amije Adahare Bondini", followed by "Bollywood Love Songs". She has sung in Urdu-Hindi, English and Bengali.
After the release of her first album, she instantly earned the title of "Probashe Ganer Rani Annie” in USA from Ekush, a Bengali newspaper published from Los Angeles in 2007. In same year, she sung live at FOBANA's Boishakhi Mela in Los Angeles, California. She did her first music video and TV interview with Bangladesh Television (BTV). After that, she did several music videos with NTV (Bangladesh).
She gave an interview to ATN Bangla in 2011 and also did music videos for the same channel. In same year, she was chosen as a grand marshal singer for Banglar Bijoy Bohor. She was crowned as best singer by Shahnaz Gazi (Acting Consular General of Bangladesh Consulate in Los Angeles, California) on December 18, 2011. She was awarded honorary fellowship/PhD degree by Bangladesh University in recognition of her devotion towards music and spreading it worldwide as an Asian in 2012. In April 2012, she gave an interview to Ruposhi Bangla, a Bengali entertainment channel. She has sung live many times at Grishmo Mela, SABAN and other US based Bangladeshi and Asian organizations' events in various sates of USA. She was introduced as a "Nightingale of Bangladesh" for her singing at Lions Club of India in California chapter. She has done live solo show twice at the Lake Shore Hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She also did a solo performance for the Orange County Engineering Council (OCEC) at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, California. In addition, she sung in a show for an Indian community in 2014 for Valentine's Day at Haveli.
As of September 30, 2014, her channel on YouTube has received over two million hits.
Other work
- Being the president, she led the convoy of Gaaner Mela in Bangladesh Day Parade 2007, organized by Bangladesh Unity Federation of Los Angeles (BUFLA).
- She has been involved in Distressed Children & Infants International for empowerment of the children.
Discography
- Amije Adahare Bondini (Bengali Songs)
- Bollywood Love Songs (Hindi Songs)