Born on July 28, 1930 to Khan Bahadur Mohammad Ismail and Begum Kawakabonnessa, Firoza Begum is often considered as a trailblazing woman for pursuing a challenging career as a Nazrul artiste in the 20th century.

As a direct student of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, whom she first met at the age of 10, Firoza Begum dedicated her whole life nurturing and promoting the songs of Nazrul in the subcontinent. She was known as the ‘rebel disciple of the rebel poet’ for her groundbreaking activities as a Nazrul artiste.

Throughout her career, she had also directly supervised many fellow Nazrul Sangeet artistes in both Bangladesh and India.

She first made her way into the music world in 1940 and sang in All India Radio while studying in sixth grade. Since then till her death, a combined total of her 700 songs and more than 20 audio cassette records were released.

The eminent artist had been honoured with prizes in both Bangladesh and India. These include Independence Award (1979), Netaji Subhash Chandra Award, Satyajit Ray Award, Nasiruddin Gold Medal, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Gold Medal, Nazrul Academy Award, Churulia Gold Medal, Gold Disk from CBS, Japan, Meril-Prothom Alo Lifetime Honorary Award (2011), a ‘D Lit’ from University of Burdwan and Bongo Shomman from Mamata Banerjee (2012), to name a few.

Her sons Hamin Ahmed and Shafin Ahmed are two of the most renowned faces in Bangladesh’s band industry.

Firoza Begum passed away on September 9, 2014.