Artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a Pakistani Punjabi singer, primarily of Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Khan is one of the most popular and highest paid singers in Pakistan. He is the nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the son of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan and the grandson of Qawwali singer Fateh Ali Khan. In addition to Qawwali, he also performs ghazals and other light music. He is also well-known as a playback singer in the Hindi cinema and Pakistan film industry.

Nazia Hassan was a Pakistani-English singer, songwriter, and philanthropist. Regarded as the "Queen of South Asian Pop,” she is considered one of the most influential musical figures in Pakistan history who completely overturned the music industry in the late 70s and 80s, and is the subcontinent's early pop star after Ahmed Rushdi. Starting in the 1980s, as part of the duo Nazia and Zoheb, she and her brother Zoheb Hassan, have sold over 65 million records worldwide.

Mehdi Hassan Khan, known as Mehdi Hassan, was a Pakistani ghazal singer and playback singer of great renown. Known as Shahenshah-e-Ghazal, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of ghazal singing. Known for his "haunting" baritone voice, Hassan is credited with bringing ghazal singing to a worldwide audience. He is unique for his melodic patterns and maintaining integrity of the ragas in an innovative way.

Mohammed Rafi was an Indian playback singer. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and range of voice; his songs varied from fast, peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona and style of the actor lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award in India. In 1967, the Government of India honored him with the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri. In 2001, Rafi was honoured with the "Best Singer of the Millennium" title by Hero Honda and Stardust magazine. In 2013, Rafi was voted for the Greatest Voice in Hindi Cinema in a CNN-IBN poll.

Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. Kumar was one of the most popular singers in the Indian subcontinent, notable for his yodelling and ability to sing songs in different voices. He used to sing in different genres but some of his rare compositions, considered classics, were lost in time. In 2013, Kumar was voted "The Most Popular Male Playback Singer" in a poll conducted by the Filmfare magazine.

Atif Aslam, also known mononymously by the hypocorism Aadeez, is a Pakistani playback singer, songwriter, composer, and actor. He has recorded many songs in both Pakistani films and Indian films, and is known for his vocal belting technique. His music style has been described as a mixture of Pakistani pop and Sufi rock. He made his Bollywood film debut in 2005 by singing his album song "Aadat" in Kalyug.

Sukhwinder Singh is an Indian playback singer, music composer, lyricist and music producer who has worked primarily in Hindi films. He has also recorded songs for films and music albums in several other Indian languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali.

Talat Mahmood was an Indian playback singer who is considered one of the greatest and most popular Indian male film song and ghazal singers. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, he did not succeed a great deal in acting.

Alka Yagnik is an Indian playback singer who worked predominantly in Hindi cinema from 1980s to mid 2010s. One of the most prominent singers of 1990s era Bollywood, she has received several accolades including two National Film Awards, two Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards and seven Filmfare Awards for Best Female Playback Singer from thirty-seven nominations. She was honoured with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for her contribution to Indian music and playback singing in 2026. Alka is cited as 'Voice Of A Generation' and is known as 'Melody Queen' of Indian cinema. Yagnik has sung maximum female solo songs in her Bollywood career along with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Several of her soundtracks were included in the BBC "Top 40 Bollywood soundtracks of all time".