How Slain Pakistani Model Qandeel Baloch Became A Star On YouTube

It is October 2013. For the last month, thousands of hopeful singers have flocked to auditions for a chance to be on the first-ever Pakistan Idol, a local spin-off of the British reality television singing competition. Three judges have travelled to cities across the country to meet with these young men and women, and on a warm morning in Multan, a twenty-eight-year-old housewife named Sabiha is waiting for her turn. So far, she has been filmed clutching the show바카라�s poster, submitting her form, touching up her mascara and even splashing her feet in the pool at the hotel. But hours later, she is still waiting with the other hundreds of contestants for her turn to sing for one minute in front of the judges. She smoothes the creases in the crinkly package she holds in her lap 바카라� a gift of a silk shalwar kameez for one of the judges 바카라� and, for the hundredth time, goes over the lyrics to the song she will audition with.

바카라�I바카라�m here to wake up the magic in my voice,바카라� she says to the camera, just as one of the producers has told her to. 바카라�I love music. Music is my hobby. I eat, drink, wake, sleep, think music!바카라�

And why are you here to audition today? Why do you want to be part of this show? Sabiha gives her best big smile. 바카라�I want to do Pakistan Idol because I바카라�m an idol.바카라� Exactly how she바카라�d rehearsed it.

She knows the contestants who can hear her are sneering. What made her so special? Did she think she was the only one chalaak (cunning) enough to bring a gift for the judges? One man had brought dates for them, another flower, and another sohn halva from Multan. 바카라�My family is a family of paan sellers,바카라� one contestant tells the judges. 바카라�My father was a paan wallah, I am a paan wallah, and God willing my son will also make paan.바카라� Best paan in the country, he tells them, as he fans out the tightly packed emerald green envelopes on a platter. 바카라�Khaike paan Banaras wallah!바카라� he sings, his final flourish for the audition before the three red-teethed judges. A labourer skips work for his audition. He cries when they turn him down. He is paid by the day and has nothing by the evening.
Some of the contestants, who have only ever seen the Indian version of the show, come into the room and try to touch the judges바카라� feet. It was expected, wasn바카라�t it? 바카라�Poor things don바카라�t know how to behave when they meet a celebrity,바카라� titters the eldest of the three judges, an actress whom everyone knows for her comedic roles. When one contestant prostrates himself before the judges, the producers scramble to pick him from his sajda. Some children with broken slippers come into the hotel lobby where the contestants are waiting. They don바카라�t want to sing. They are happy to spend the entire day sitting on the red velvet cushioned seats inside the airconditioned hotel.

Others don바카라�t have gifts and don바카라�t care if they make it through. 바카라�It바카라�s enough for us that we got to meet you,바카라� they say to the judges. Some of them have flown in an aeroplane for the first time in their lives as they made it past the first round of auditions and were taken to Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad for further auditions. Others haven바카라�t gotten over the thrill of being in a hotel and turning on the taps at any time of the day or night to see a bubbly gush of hot water come forth.

 

The contestants are in the running to win a car, a cash prize and the chance to record a music album, but everyone knows that the excitement of the show is the real prize. 바카라�We have to keep Pakistan바카라�s background in mind,바카라� the actress says when asked about the winner바카라�s prospects in an industry that is all but dead anyway. Might as well give these people a generator, she feels. It would be of more use to them.

Ramsha, a fifteen-year-old contestant from Faisalabad, doesn바카라�t have any interest in the prizes. She has only ever sung religious hymns. She sings songs from the Bollywood film Aashiqui 2 and practises in the bathroom. She is going to Karachi for the next round of auditions. 바카라�I don바카라�t even want to be the main singer,바카라� she confesses. 바카라�I want to be a playback singer. I just want to be famous. I want that the world knows that I sing. I want to walk past someone and have them look at me and think, 바카라�Oh she바카라�s that girl, the one from Pakistan Idol.바카라� I don바카라�t care about the prizes. Today you바카라�ll get a prize, by tomorrow it바카라�ll be gone. I want to be famous. That바카라�s why I바카라�m here.바카라� At night, Ramsha tries to sleep as she listens to her fellow contestants walk up and down the hallways of their hotel floors practising their scales.

Only twelve of the thousands of contestants from seven cities in the country will remain for the final round.

Twelve, Sabiha repeats to herself as she stares at the judges when she is finally called into the room. Only twelve.

After she is done singing, the judge she had brought the gift for, the one whose voice she loves, the one with a tuft of hair dyed crimson like a rooster바카라�s plume, tells her, 바카라�The tone of your voice is very surely. It has a thin texture.바카라� She pinches her fingers and rubs them together as if Sabiha바카라�s voice is some fabric a vendor has rolled out for her to inspect. The actress helpfully tries to imitate a voice with a thin texture. Then she trills out what she thinks Sabiha바카라�s voice should sound like.

바카라�I can바카라�t get past that voice,바카라� says the male judge. 바카라�That바카라�s a problem.바카라� 

바카라�What바카라�s the verdict?바카라� the first judge asks. 

바카라�No.바카라� 

바카라�No.바카라� 

바카라�Can I sing something else for you?바카라� Sabiha asks. 

바카라�No.바카라� 

The cameras follow her as she walks out. She knows what they want. 바카라�Yahaan pe sirf khoya hee jata hai,바카라� she says, looking straight into the lens. 바카라�Yahaan pe kuch paya nahin jata (There is only loss here. There is nothing to be gained).바카라�

She curses the judges. They know nothing about melody. They know nothing about music. They only know who is supposed to get in and who is going to be eliminated. It is all rigged from the start. She turns to face the other contestants, still waiting in those red velvet cushioned chairs. 바카라�Whatever was already planned has happened here, nothing else,바카라� she tells them. 바카라�You should all just go home. There바카라�s nothing fair about what바카라�s going on here.바카라�

She still makes it on TV. The clip of the angry twenty-eight-year-old housewife from Multan was just too good to cut.

Thankfully, it is a clip of another young woman, some 22-year-old girl in Lahore who goes by the name Qandeel, that gets all the attention. Sabiha is quickly forgotten. Sabiha watches this girl prance on camera in a pair of hot pink and black heels, an equally pink pair of tights and a green silk shirt. Qandeel snaps her fingers and dances and sits on the hood of a car bouncing her head to the music playing from her cell phone. 바카라�I바카라�m a professional model, I do modelling, shoots, brand shoots,바카라� she explains, in a video recorded earlier in what appears to be her home. She sits cross-legged on a bed with an ornate headboard that has flowers and leaves carved into it. Her cheeks have been rouged and her eyebrows are swiped with too much dark powder. Her hair, parted down the middle, is pinned on each side with a schoolgirl바카라�s barrettes. 바카라�I love singing so much,바카라� she says. 바카라�It바카라�s not just a hobby but a passion.바카라� (How many of us said this? Sabiha thinks, feeling foolish.) 바카라�I feel I can be Pakistan바카라�s idol.

바카라�What바카라�s your name?바카라� asks the actress judge when Qandeel walks into the room for her audition. 바카라�Pinky?바카라� 

바카라�Qandeel Baloch.바카라� 

바카라�Okay, I thought maybe it바카라�s Pinky.바카라� She points to her outfit. 바카라�Everything is pink.

바카라�You look so beautiful,바카라� Qandeel gushes. 바카라�I always see you on TV but Masha Allah, you look so beautiful.바카라�

바카라�Feel free to praise him too, or he바카라�ll get offended,바카라� the actress says, gesturing towards the male judge.

Oh there바카라�s no point praising men, it makes no difference to them,바카라� Qandeel replies.

바카라�But I바카라�m sure men must praise you,바카라� the third judge quips.

Qandeel says she is nervous. She puts on a little girl바카라�s whining voice and the judges cajole her to give it her best shot. But when she finally does sing, she is a natural. She isn바카라�t rooted to that oval plastic mat like the other contestants. She walks forward, beckoning to the judges with her arms, beseeching them with her words, closing her eyes as she sways. She stares straight into the camera. She isn바카라�t nervous. She is performing.

Later, the producers add some effects to that clip. One judge has smoke billowing out of her ears. When Qandeel hits a high note, there is a sound like a spring recoiling. The male judge buries his face in his hands.

When they tell her to leave, she strokes the hair falling from those two schoolgirl barrettes and gives a small smile and says in that little girl바카라�s voice, 바카라�Don바카라�t reject me, please.바카라� She pouts. 바카라�I want to sing a song some more.바카라�

The actress walks over to her and holds her by the shoulders and leads her out. The male judge pretends to cry.

바카라�You fooled me,바카라� Qandeel wails to the cameras waiting outside. 바카라�I told my parents I바카라�m doing this audition and they바카라�re so hopeful now. Now, what am I going to say to them? They will just think, they rejected our daughter.바카라� She is on the verge of tears, her breath catching on each word.

바카라�Don바카라�t worry, cheer up, okay?바카라� the actress says, patting her shoulder. 바카라�We바카라�ll see you doing modelling someday.바카라� As she walks away, Qandeel covers her face with both hands and lets out a wail. The show바카라�s host pushes the mike towards her. She turns her back to him, doubling over as she sobs. Her shrieks echo in the hall. There is no one else there. The other contestants have gone away and it is now dark outside. The cameras follow her as she cups her face in her hands, the baby-pink painted nails covering her eyes as she cries all the way out the door.

바카라�Poor Qandeel has wept off all her kajal,바카라� the voiceover to the clip would later remark.

Liars. All frauds. 

Watch it again. Did you see any tears?

What I did there was my acting. Everything was planned from the start. It바카라�s all bakwaas.

The audition clip went viral. Even long after she was gone, Qandeel바카라�s five minutes on Pakistan Idol would rack up 8.3 million hits on YouTube.

(Excerpted from The Sensational Life  And Death of Qandeel Baloch by Sanam Maher, a journalist based in Karachi, with permission from Aleph Book Company)