By Mizan Rahman /Dhaka
Bangladesh’s veteran and celebrated folk singer Abdur Rahman Boyati, who had enchanted hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers in Gulf countries with his lilting songs, passed away at Dhaka city’s Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital yesterday. He was 76.
Hospital sources said Boyati breathed his last at 7:30am.
He was under treatment at the hospital since after he had suffered a brain stroke three months back.
Born in 1939 in Dayaganj area under Sutrapur Police Station of the capital, Boyati had almost 500 solo albums of folk songs in his name.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock at the death of Boyati and prayed for salvation of the departed soul and conveyed her sympathy to the members of the bereaved family. Boyati was suffering from lung and kidney problems, high blood pressure and other old age ailments for quite some time.
People of eminence flocked to the hospital to pay their last tribute to the artist as soon news of his death spread.
Besides his numerous famous folk songs, he was also an immensely talented lyricist, music composer and a music director.
In his illustrated career that stretched for more than four decades, he mainly brought up the lives and passions of the teeming millions of Bangladesh.
He was widely praised after he performed in a White House programme following an invitation of former US President Gorge W Bush.
His other famous songs include ‘Ami bhuli bhuli mone kori Prane dhoijjo mane na’, ‘Ai prithibi jemon ache temoni robe’ and ‘Amar matir ghore’.
