Vital Signs Although the band
Vital Signs began in early 1986 in
Rawalpindi by Keyboardist
Rohail Hyatt and bassist Shahzad Hasan (Shahi), it was not until later that Jamshed, then a young engineering student from UET Lahore, joined them as their lead singer. They began performing in different parts of the country after having secured a place in the underground music industry in Islamabad and Lahore. In a live concert in Islamabad, the band got noticed and approached by the music officials of the
PTV, and a record deal was awarded by Rana Kanwal, a student of the
National Academy of Performing Arts.
Solo career Jamshed released his first solo album,
Junaid of Vital Signs in 1994. The album's name was later changed to
Tumhara Aur Mera Naam by the record producers. After departing from Vital Signs in 1998, Jamshed released the second solo album, the
Us Rah Par (lit. On that way.) in 1999. The second solo album,
Us Rah Par went on to become one of the best selling albums of 1999. The album included several singles which became popular and were ultimate
sleeper hits. All songs were written by Jamshed and the majority of such songs as, "Us Rah Par", "Na Tu Ayegi", "Aankhon Ko Aankhon Ney" and "O Sanama", were ultimate success and commercial hits of all time. In 2000, Jamshed released his third album,
The Best of Junaid Jamshed, which contained remixes of some of the hit singles of the Vital Signs era, though it captured the mix success. His fourth and last solo album,
Dil Ki Baat, was released in 2001, which became highly successful in the country and gained a lot of public and media attention. In 2003,
BBC World Service conducted a poll to choose the most popular songs. Around 7,000 songs were selected from all over the world. According to BBC, people from 155 countries/territories voted in the poll. "Dil Dil Pakistan" was ranked third among the top 10 songs.
Drift from music conference held in
Toronto in 2009 As early as 1999, the media began speculating about Jamshed's drift from music soon after the
Vital Signs faded away. The speculations soon died after Jamshed released his solo albums and continued world tours. After 2001, Jamshed disappeared from the public eye and avoided media attention. His last two albums did not do well in the market and failed to get any positive response from the country's music critics. His former bandmates,
Shahzad Hassan and
Rohail Hyatt, saw him struggling to negotiate the transition from one world to another. He became distant from Hyatt, who continued to work on producing music. Jamshed then left engineering and, to supplement his income, he opened the clothing store "J.", selling
Khaadis (a form of
Kurta-
Shalwar). When offered the role, Jamshed maintained that he will "shave his beard" for the film and the role for Jamshed was written by Mansoor. Jamshed later refused to be a part of the film and Mansoor maintained that: "Responses like this one convinced people that Jamshed was not certain about his future, and that the Islamist experience was just a phase." ==Influence==