Qawwali and ghazal are slowly finding an audience in Kerala, says musician Nisa Azeezi

Singer and composer Nisa Azeezi who is a recipient of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi award 2023 talks about her journey as a ghazal and qawwali musician

She broke into the male bastion of qawwali singing several years ago and continues to enthral music lovers. Singer-composer Nisa Azeezi, 54, is among the recipients of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award 2023. Having grown up in a family of musicians in Malappuram, Nisa says she owes it all to her father, MA Azeez, a Hindustani musician, and her gurus.

“Even though there are a lot of women ghazal singers now, women qawwali singers are not that common,” says Nisa over the phone from Shornur in Palakkad district.

Nisa started learning Hindustani at the age of four from AE Vincent and performed with her father for the first time when she was just six. Although Hindustani music was all around her, she was admitted to the Chembai Memorial Government Music College, Palakkad, to learn Carnatic music. “My father and my teacher, KG Marar, enrolled me in the music college. I was the first girl from the Muslim community to study Carnatic music there,” says Nisa. She performed at the Kalpathy chariot festival and various music festivals during the Navarathri festival, including at Thunchanparambu in Tirur, the birthplace of Thunchathu Ezhuthachan, the father of Malayalam language.

“Many from our community were unhappy with my decision to study music. But since my family supported me wholeheartedly, the going has been smooth,” says Nisa, eldest of Azeez’s nine children, better known as Azeez bhai in music circles of Malappuram.

While her sisters are not professionally into music, her brothers are full-time musicians. “One of my brothers accompanies me on the tabla at all my concerts,” she adds.

Nisa says she could not have asked for a bigger supporter than her husband, Mustafa Deshmangalam, a director and writer. “He chooses the songs that suit my voice.” Her two children are also into music.

Nisa has learnt Hindustani music from Saratchandra Marathe and Nalin Moolj and has also studied at Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, Mumbai. While serving as a teacher at MES Senior Secondary School, Tirur, she continued her Hindustani lessons under Ustad Faiyaz Ahmed Khan of Kirana gharana, Ustad Rafique Khan of Dharwad gharana and Umer Ustad of Jaipur gharana.