Born on 18^th July, 1921 in a village called Luna in Rajasthan, India ; into a family of traditional musicians. Mehdi Hasan claimed to be the 16^th generation of hereditary musicians coming from the Kalawant clan of musicians. He was musically trained by his father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan who too were both traditional Dhrupad singers.

He did his first concert at a fairly early age with his elder brother which reportedly was held in Fazilka Bungla near the current DC house of undivided Punjab.

However after the partition of India, the 20 year old Hasan with his family migrated to Pakistan and suffered major financial crisis.

To make both the ends meet, he started working in a bicycle shop and later on became a car and diesel tractor mechanic; nonetheless his passion for music never wavered.

His first major break was when he was given the opportunity to sing on Radio Pakistan in 1957 which earned him some recognition amongst the musical fraternity.