There is not a single person in Nepal who does not know who Narayan Gopal Guruwacharya is. He was given the title Swor Samrat, meaning king of voices, Narayan Gopal for his contributions in Nepali music industry. His songs were able to touch the heart of the listeners’. He had the voice that was too captivating and that remained in heart forever. Most of his songs were the greatest hits of the time and even today, although he is not physically among us, his voice and songs are alive among us.

Narayan Gopal was born on October 4, 1939 and apart from singing, which he is famous for, he loved sports, photography and cooking. He died on December 5, 1990 leaving behind his melodious and heart touching songs for us.

Everyone has lived with something interesting in their lives and so did he. Some of the unbelievable and interesting incidents in Narayan Gopal’s life are mentioned below in this article.

Narayan Gopal is one of those singers who gained such heights of popularity with minimum number of song as he had only recorded 137 songs during his life.

He had registered himself as N. Gopal during his entrance to Radio Nepal.

His favorite singer was Mehdi Hassan and he also loved body building as his favorite signer did. Narayan Gopal even called himself as ‘Syando Pehelman’.

Although his mother language is Newari, he sang only three songs in the language and none of them were recorded.

He was first agreed upon and then barred to sing in the first Nepali movie ‘Maitighar‘.

He never sang for any advertisement rather protested for his song being used for an advertisement in tuberculosis.

Although he rode a bike all his life, he bought a car for ‘Sanskritik Sansthan‘ when he was the managing director there.

He sacked forty artists including Sushila KC, Haribansa Acharya and his own guru Manik Ratna from the job at ‘Sanskritik Sansthan‘ at the time where the festival of Dashain was nearing.

He had received a single award for playback singing which he rejected. The award was from the Lion’s Club and it is still at the house of the organizer Narendra Shrestha.

He had also worked as a motor mechanic during the time when he was unemployed.

His first teacher was his own father Asha Gopal Guruwacharya and his other teacher was Manik Ratna. His first song was composed by his friends Prem Dhoj Pradhan and his teacher Manik Ratna.

He was first introduced to musician Gopal Yonjan by Yonjan’s first love Madan Pradhan and they were bound in the relation of special friend (mit) by Ishwor Ballav Bhattarai by lighting fire on Makal on March 1965 at Mahakal Dada in Darjeeling, India.

He studied music at Maharaj Firdaus Sangeet Vidyala in Badauda, India and had dedicated a song Chinari Hamro Dherai Purano Rahe Jhai Lagcha, written by Narendra Thapa, to his first love Pamela Lama.