Artist Birtday :	30/07/1973 (Age 51)
Born In :	Faridabad, Haryana, India
Occupation(s) :	Singer, composer, anchor
Genres :	Pop Rock, classical, semi-classical, ghazals, playback

Sonu Nigam Biography:

Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian singer and composer. Sonu Nigam sings predominantly in Hindi and Kannada language films but has also sung in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Nepali, Maithili, Malayalam and other Indian languages. Sonu Nigam has also released numbers of Indian pop albums and acted in a number of Hindi films. He is regarded as the “Lord of Chords”.

Sonu Nigam’s acting career started as a child in films including Betaab (1983). As an adult, he acted in films such as Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani, Kash Aap Hamare Hote and Love in Nepal. Sonu Nigam has been signed to be in Ankhon Ankhon Mein, about a blind singer. Nigam provided the voice for the lead character, in the Hindi dubbed version of Aladdin.

Sonu Nigam Singer:

Life and background:

Sonu Nigam was born on 30 July 1973 to Agam Kumar Nigam and Shobha Nigam in the city of Faridabad, Haryana. His father was from Agra and his mother was from Garhwal. His sister Teesha Nigam is also a professional singer.

Nigam began his singing career at the age of four, when he joined his father Agam Kumar Nigam on stage to sing Mohammed Rafi’s song “Kya Hua Tera Wada”. Nigam began accompanying his father on his singing appearances at weddings and parties. He moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career at the age of 18. He was trained by Hindustani classical singer Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

He married Madhurima Mishra on 15 February 2002. They have a son named Nevaan.

Nigam had changed his name to Sonu Niigaam citing numerology beliefs, but later decided to go back to his birth name. He said, “The name change was one of the journeys I had to take in life. I had to go through that path to learn the truth. And I have realised that I don’t want to tamper with these forces. I am happy with all the astrological arrangements I was born with. I am happy finding success with my original name.”

Singing and composing work:

He has recorded Romantic, Rock, Sad, Devotional, Ghazal and Patriotic songs. He has sung in: Hindi, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Tamil and Telugu till date. Nigam has released pop albums in Hindi, Kannada, Odia, Chhattisgarhi and Punjabi, as well as Hindu and Islamic devotional albums. He has released several Buddhist albums. Nigam has performed in countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. In May–June 2007, he participated in The Incredibles tour with Asha Bhosle, Kunal Ganjawala, and Kailash Kher. In September–October of the same year, he gave solo concerts titled Simply Sonu in Canada and Germany, the first Indian singer to do so. In April 2008, he toured India promoting his Punjabi single “Punjabi Please”.

Nigam’s first film song as a playback singer was for Janam (1990), which was never officially released. He then began making radio commercials and also acted in some of them.

His first released song was “O Aasman Wale” from the movie Aaja Meri Jaan (1992). Sonu had also sung the title track of Aaja Meri Jaan, but it was dubbed by SP Balasubramaniam. He released his first album “Rafi Ki Yaadein” in 1992. After this, he sung in some movies, including Muqabla (1993), Veerta (1993) Meherban (1993), Shabnam (1993), Kasam Teri Kasam (1993), Aag (1994), Khuddar (1994), Hulchul (1994), Stuntman (1994), Ramjaane (1995), Gaddaar (1995), Jeet (1996) etc. Sonu Nigam was supposed to playback the song “Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh” from 1942: A Love Story and Sonu was the first choice of music director R. D. Burman for this song, but the song was eventually recorded by Kumar Sanu. He began hosting the TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma in 1995 and sang “Accha Sila Diya” for the film Bewafa Sanam, achieving greater success. In the same year, he sang the Anu Malik-composed song “Sandese Aate Hai” in Border and performed the Nadeem-Shravan-composed song “Yeh Dil Deewana” in Pardes in 1997, which took him out from his stereotyped image of singing. Nigam’s album Deewana, with music directed by Sajid-Wajid, was released by T-Series in 1999 and is one of the most selling and celebrated albums till date.

Nigam provided playback singing for Hindi movies, including the title song for the film Kal Ho Naa Ho in 2003 to “Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin” for Agneepath in 2012 and many more.[citation needed]. However, from the past few years, he has become selective about his songs so that he can focus more on creative works. His upcoming project with Bickram Ghosh named “Bollywood Retro” is one such project.

He composed the title track of the film Singh Saab The Great in 2013 and has also composed music for other films including: Sooper Se Ooper and Jal, in collaboration with percussionist Bickram Ghosh in the same year.[citation needed]

Nigam has released albums of Mohammed Rafi’s songs including Rafi Ki Yaadein, a collection early in his career, which was re-released in Rafi’s memory in September 2007 as a six-disc collection of 100 songs, titled Kal Aaj Aur Kal. In 2008, soon after releasing Classically Mild, he released a single Punjabi track entitled “Punjabi Please” and Rafi Resurrected, a two-disc collection of Rafi songs with music by the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He contributed to the lyrics of several songs and directed the music for his album Chanda Ki Doli.

Sonu has always been loved and respected by the Bollywood industry. Among the new generation of singers, Lata Mangeshkar likes Sonu the most. Shah Rukh Khan has been always seen heaping praises on Sonu whom he considers as an true artiste. Shankar Mahadevan considers Sonu Nigam as his favourite singer in recent times. Music director Himesh Reshammiya also believes that Sonu is the best singer in the industry. Filmmaker Shirish Kunder is full of praises for Sonu. Shekhar of Vishal-Shekhar duo considered him as the finest live performer. Even Shaan, who is one of his contemporaries, has admired him for a long time. Singing sensation Armaan Malik idolises Sonu Nigam as his God and Guru and draws a lot of inspiration from him.

After the death of Michael Jackson, Nigam released a song as a tribute to Jackson which was included on the tribute album The Beat of Our Hearts.

In November 2007, at the inauguration of Harvard University’s 28th president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Nigam sang Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan, “Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye”, with the Harvard College Sangeet.

In July 2008, he participated in a three-city tour of the United Kingdom, singing Rafi songs with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). This followed the release of these songs by the CBSO and the Indian music company Sa Re Ga Ma on Rafi Resurrected.

He participated in a US tour with Sunidhi Chauhan in 2009 called The Explosion 2009 tour and in a UK tour titled All Izz Well in November 2010. In 2011, Nigam collaborated with Kakas Entertainment and Laxmikant-Pyarelal for a Maestros Concert performing Mohammed Rafi songs.

In 2011, Nigam collaborated with Britney Spears on a remix of her “I Wanna Go” track, and with DJ Avicii on his song “Indian Levels”, produced by Avicii in 2012.

He was ranked the Number 1 artist on the US Billboard Uncharted charts twice in September and October 2013.

In September 2015, Nigam recorded a song with the music director Khayyam for the upcoming project titled Gulam Bandhu.

Work in Kannada:

Nigam’s first song in Kannada was in 1996 for the film Jeevanadhi. The song “Yello Yaro Hego” was composed by Saluri Koteswara Rao with lyrics by R. N. Jayagopal. Nigam has since sung over 600 Kannada songs. He is known as the Golden Singer Of Karnataka.

His songs include “Cheluve Yeke Bande”, from the film Majnu, composed by Gurukiran; “Titanic Heroine Nee Nanna Cheluve”, from the film Snehaloka; the title track from the film Monalisa composed by Valisha Sandeep; “Hamsave Hamsave” from the film Gatti Mela, composed by Hamsalekha, “Kannale Kannale” from the film Aham Premasmi, composed by V.Ravichandran and “Baaninda Baa Chandira, from the movie Kanti, composed by Gurukiran. The 2006 film Mungaru Male created a sensation and spawned several records, mainly in Karnataka.

The songs “Mungaru Maleye” and “Anisuthide” were composed by Mano Murthy and written by Yogaraj Bhat and Jayant Kaikini respectively. Nigam has said that he finds Kannada songs more fulfilling than the Hindi numbers. In an interview with Deccan Herald he said “Kannada songs make me feel positive”. He went on to say: “I highly respect the musicians of Karnataka and many of my favourite songs are in Kannada. I consider Bangalore as my second birthplace. Even if someone requests me to sing a Kannada song while I’m performing in the West Indies, I will sing it for them”.

Sonu Nigaam during a Peace Rally in Mumbai on 20 November 2011
From the same Mungaru Male combination, composer Murthy, lyricist Kaikini and Nigam got together to record the Kannada album Neene Bari Neene, produced by Ashok Kheny. Videos for the songs “Neene Bari Neene” and “Baa Nodu Gelathi” were shot on the outskirts of Bangalore featuring Nigam and model Madhuri Bhattacharya in the lead. Nigam also composed a theme song for the Karnataka Bulldozers team in the Celebrity Cricket League and sang it with Kunal Ganjawala and Sowmya Raoh, who also penned the lyrics.

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