Perhaps it was the sight of a Indian classical musical instrument, so linkable to Hinduism, that the Muslims got angered over in Norway in 1986. Performing seated alongside notable ghazal maestros of the subcontinent was the eight years old Deepika Thathaal known by her stage name Deeyah. Life for this rising young Pakistani-Norwegian star wouldn't be an easy ride. She had never been to Pakistan but had always wanted to wow people back home with her performances, if only she could conquer the gap between religion and music.

Raised listening to Pakistani pop hits of the '80s by the Hassan siblings, Nazia and Zoheb, the little girl put her classical music training under Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan to test and aspired to be such a musician. With countless appearances on local television in her home country, she produced several chart-topping hits.

"People would usually come to my father and sit him down asking, 'We don't even let our sons do it, why would you let your daughter do this?'" she remembers in an interview with David Mattingly for CNN. Such was the Pakistani community in Norway angered on her performances on the tube that she had to have friends and family around her wherever she went to protect her.

Finally a moment of triumph came in 1992 when she sang at the opening ceremony for Norway's TV2 in the company of the prime minister and the minister of culture. The largest independent record company in the country offered her a contract and released her first solo album. Little do Pakistanis know but this album was the pioneer in Pakistani pop fusion, mixing the electropop elements and the classical Pakistani sound. From Ustad Sultan Khan to Ustad Shaukat Hussain to leading producers in the country collaborated with the fifteen years old star. Deepika was an instant hit and shrouded behind ignorance, her success was never visible in Pakistan.

Of the one good thing that happened of her success was the positive portrayal of Pakistan in the Norwegian media. Where newspapers were ridden with images of Pakistani mobsters and murderers and cover stories on Pakistani gangs' atrocities, a change whisked in the air. Deepika was the first ever Pakistani to be highlighted on national newspaper covers in a positive light, something Pakistanis fail to relate to her at present. Threats were a common dose she had to take on her way to home or even at her first concert at the Vossa Jazz theatre.

Just when it seemed fanatics would get the better of her, her music became noticed in the European music industry. In 1995, BMG offered her a contract for her next album, a self-titled compilation of her dance, hip-hop hits again fused with a Pakistani sound. Music was good, videos for them was however controversial. Outraged, the Muslim community all over sent her death threats and used vile language when they met her. Henceforth, she'd be called the "Muslim Madonna" for her ground-breaking protest videos against racism and gender divide in the Pakistani culture. At a time when she couldn't take it any more, she left the country for the United Kingdom.

And why not the UK, a country where music was respected and Pakistani stars like her had already made history (Nazia Hassan made it into the UK 40 Singles chart with "Dreamer Deewane"). She collaborated with the Grammy winning produce Darin Prindle to produce what would become her best hit-to-date, "Plan of My Own". The single reached the 30s in the UK 40 Singles chart and the singer became the only other Pakistani artist after Nazia to share the crown. Where she was soaring in success, her past was trying to catch. She had failed to understand that the country she had taken refuge in was more fundamentally Islamic than the previous. Death threats followed and she left for the US. At this stage, she had lost all hope to continue and was almost on verge of quitting the business all together with a final answer to the years of hate she had gathered around herself.

With LA rapper Young Maylay, she produced the track "What Will It Be?" in 2006. The track was well received but it was the video that prompted outrage. Years of hate and she broke her silence in the video by appearing semi-nude showing her naked back and in the last few seconds of the video walking in a burqa only to strip into a swimsuit. "In no way is this video declaring that all Muslim women do this, but what I wanted to do and what the religion was keeping me from doing," she said in an interview. "Free speech is our (Muslim women's) right."

With controversies overshadowing the sweet melodious voice this pop sensation has, Pakistan is oblivious to the very nature of her existence. Her latest 2007 album features a lullaby sung in Pushto and a Punjabi Sufi track called "Jogi" in an effort to make her sound known throughout Pakistan, a country she says is "her blood".