Ahmed Rushdi, (; April 24, 1934 – April 11, 1983) was a legendary Pakistani playback singer. He was "an important contributor to the "Golden age" of Pakistani movie music." Rushdi is acclaimed as one of the greatest singers ever lived in south Asia. He is considered to be one of the most famous and versatile singers of the subcontinent. He is also considered to be the first regular pop singer of south Asia. and credited as having sung the "first-ever South asian" pop song. In 1954, he recorded the official National anthem of Pakistan with several other singers. Rushdi has recorded the highest number of movie songs in the history of "Pakistani cinema" in many languages. He suffered from poor health during the latter part of his life and died of a heart attack at the age of 48, after recording approximately five thousand movie songs for 583 released movies. Besides popular music, Rushdi also helped popularize the ghazals of Naseer Turabi. In 2003, 20 years after his death, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf awarded him the "Sitara-e-Imtiaz".