Abdullah Siddiqui, the Pakistani young singing sensation, famous for his song Resistance released in 2018, is the latest Pakistani to have made it to ‘Forbes 30 Under 30”. The young musician has launched three albums to date and is loved for his original content.
The 20-year-old electropop prodigy’s Resistance has almost four million views on YouTube. His rise to fame began with his original being featured on Nescafe Basement’s Season 5 in 2019.
He went on Twitter to announce to break the news, with the caption, Forbes 30 Under 30. I’m completely stunned and so incredibly grateful,” adding, “To everyone who helped me get here, thank you.”
According to Forbes, “Siddiqui began producing English-language electronic music at the age of 11 and started releasing it as an independent artist when he was 16.”
The post said, “The native of Lahore has appeared on Nescafé Basement, a Pakistani TV series that showcases the music of underground artists. He has written and produced music for some prominent singers in Pakistan, including Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi, Shamoon Ismail, and Aima Baig.”
Read More: Independent musicians thrive as pandemic silences Bollywood
Other People who have made Pakistan Proud
While Abdullah being the latest addition, it is worth mentioning the six other people from Pakistan who featured in this Forbes list of 300 Millennials and Gen-Zs who are seen as future leaders in their respective fields.
The six other people from Pakistan featured in Forbes list are:
Hannia Zia-Enterprise Technology
Hannia Zia is a 27-year-old Zia entrepreneur in Pakistan working as a project manager with the government during the pandemic. According to Fobes, she is, “Pakistani Government’s sole product manager of its pandemic tech response and one of the three founding members of the Prime Minister’s Office initiative Digital Pakistan.”
Other than that, “She launched a WhatsApp bot to spread Covid-19 awareness in seven local languages that have connected to 500,000 users and was endorsed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as a Covid-19 ringtone, which has been heard by 113 million Pakistanis.”
So, she is the major voice behind controlling the ongoing pandemic in Pakistan. According to Fobes, “Zia also grew the Health Ministry’s Facebook page a hundred-fold to 1.8 million followers,” thus increasing accessibility of the health ministry, during critical pandemic times.
The publication mentioned, “Prime Minister Imran Khan recognized her for her contributions with a WHENTK award.” She has previously served as a project manager at Google and has many Patents under her name. She is a Yale graduate with a degree in computer science and psychology.
Read More: Tania Aidrus, Digital Pakistan’s head, launches ‘chatbot’ to fight coronavirus
ModulusTech- Social Impact
All three co-founders of Pakistan’s starup ModulusTech namely Yaseen Khalid, aged 27; M.Saquib Malik, aged 28; Nabeel Siddiqui, aged 27 have all been featured on the Forbes list.
According to Forbes, “ModulusTech offers an innovative flat-packed house that can be set up within a day by three people using simple hand tools.”
The houses are environmentally sustainable as “their alternative housing produces 50 times less greenhouse gas emissions compared to concrete buildings.”
Moreover, the goal of the company is, “to provide homes to the poor, displaced or homeless people.”
According to Forbes, “ModulusTech has been recognized by the UN, Global Cleantech Award and others and has received funding worth $20 million from the Islamic Development Bank and other international NGOs, as well as some angel investors.”
Misha Japanwala-The Arts
Japanwala, 25, is a visual artist and designer who, using her arts, highlights the social issues of Pakistan. According to Forbes, her “work addresses issues such as domestic violence and honor killings in Pakistan.”
On her achievements, the publication added that “She collaborated with Gigi Hadid last year on a sculptural mask for a special issue of V Magazine that the supermodel guest-edited.”
Among her famous work, is “a collection of breastplates and other wearable body castings, was featured in a six-page spread in Vogue Spain in 2018, modeled by French model Cindy Bruna.”
Read More: Visually impaired Khansa Maria to pursue scholarship at Oxford University
Shayan Mahmud-Media, Marketing & Advertising
Mahmud, 29, is the oldest person to be featured in Forbe’s 30-under-30 from Pakistan. According to the publication, he, “is the managing partner of Eikon7, an advertising and digital marketing agency with offices in Pakistan as well as Romania, Rwanda and the U.A.E.”
However, his part in the exponential growth of Eikon 7 is not all there is to him.
According to Forbes, “Mahmud oversees Trademor, an Eikon7 subsidiary that helps small- and medium-sized enterprises with sales and marketing on e-commerce platforms like China’s Alibaba.”
He holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from Regent’s University London.
Read More:Op-ed: Pakistan’s economic malaise, is there any will to tackle it?
Pakistan is proud of such an amazing people emerging as leaders in their respective fields, and these people are a source of inspiration to young people that there is no right or wrong age to take one’s part in bringing change to the world.