Laila was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Her father was from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Her early music training was done when her family lived in Karachi Federal B area in 1960. Ustad Qader, later known as Piya Rang, was her teacher.

Runa started learning classical music at a very early age, and received vigorous training from Ustad Habibiddin Khan. She made her first public debut as a singer at the age of six and cut her first disc for a Pakistani film called "Jugnu" at the age of twelve. Runa's carrier as a singer came by accident. It was her elder sister Dina who first got the break, but on the day of her performance, she developed a sore throat and Runa was asked to stand in. She was so little that she could not hold the 'tanpura'. She held it horizontally and sang a 'kheyal'. She started appearing in 'Zia Mohyuddin Show' a Karachi TV stage show(1972-74)and later did songs for numerous Pakistani films in the 70s,Umra Jan Ada(1972)was a super hit,all but one of its songs were done by Runa Laila.

And she became an instant hit. Sister Dina would have followed in her footsteps, but she had to give up singing when she married. She later died of cancer. In memory of her sister, Runa held six concerts in Bangladesh and donated the entire proceeds to a children's hospital in Dhaka to build a cancer ward which has been named after her sister. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.