Renowned Nepali Musician Narayan Gopal

Music Nepal is known as the leading company in the music industry in the country. On one of the album covers of Narayan Gopal's CDs the company described him as the most popular Nepali musician who has ever existed and was quoted on the cover saying: "A still more appropriate introduction of the music maestro would be to call him the King of Vocals or Swar Samrat of contemporary Nepali music." He was the favorite musician of millions of Nepali music enthusiasts, and is still popular today, years after his passing.

Narayan Gopal grew up to be a very successful composer and singer. He was so vocally talented that he was able to perform various Nepal music genres, making him an extremely diverse artist. He was born in the city of Kathmandu to a Newar family. As his father was a classical musician, Gopal was exposed to music at a very young age. His father wanted him to carry on the tradition of classical musician, but even though Gopal was very interested in music, his attention and interest was directed towards other genres. His life changed dramatically at the age of twelve, after he met a popular music artist named Prem dhoj Pradhan. On Pradhan's insistence Gopal sang a Dr. Ram man Trishit composition (Panchi ko Panka ma Dharti ko Ya Diyo) on Radio Nepal, and soon thereafter recorded a popular music piece, Swarga ki Rani maya ki Khani. This infuriated his father, as he felt he was wasting his talent on music that served no purpose. To appease his father, Gopal left for India to study classical music, but was forced to return to Nepal after just four and a half months.

On his return to Nepal he found that his music had already made an impression on the people of Nepal, and went to Darjeeling to meet Gopal Yonjam, accompanied by Nagendra Thapa. Yonjam and Gopal soon became best friends, and together they changed the face of Nepali music. Gopal eventually got married but never fathered any children of his own. During his career as singer and composer, he composed numerous pieces and sang more than five hundred compositions that included modern songs, patriotic pieces, and songs for movies, as well as dance dramas and ballets. Narayan Gopal received numerous awards such as the Jagadamba Shree, Urvashi Rang, Indra Rajya Laxmi Award and the Trushakti Patta Third. Sadly, Gopal passed away in December 1990.