Sonu Nigam is an Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi and Marathi movies. He has also released Indian pop albums and acted in a few movies.
He was very famous in the late 90's and early 2000's, when he recorded highest numbers of songs by a singer in a calendar year.
Early and personal life
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". From then on, Nigam accompanied 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.[4] He was trained by Hindustani classical singer Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.
Nigam married Madhurima, who is from a Bengali family, on 15 February 2002. He says that he is spiritual rather than religious.
Singing and composing work
Nigam's first movie 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.
Nigam started hosting the TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma, in 1995. Soon after, he sang "Accha Sila Diya" for the film Bewafa Sanam (1995). He sang the Anu Malik-composed song "Sandese Aate Hai" in Border (1997). He performed the Nadeem-Shravan-composed song "Yeh Dil Deewana" in Pardes in the same year. Nigam's album Deewana, with music directed by Sajid-Wajid, was released by T-Series in 1999.[4]
Nigam provided playback singing for Hindi movies including the title song of the film Kal Ho Naa Ho and "Abhi Mujhme Kahin" (Agneepath-2013). He recorded romantic, rock, sad and patriotic songs in Hindi, Kannada,Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, English, Maithili , Bhojpuri, Urdu, Nepali, Chhattisgarhi, Malayalam, Tulu and Marathi.
Nigam composed the title track of the film Singh Saab The Great as a solo composer. He has also composed the music of films including Sooper Se Ooper and Jal in collaboration with percussionist Bickram Ghosh.
Nigam has released pop albums in Hindi, Odia, Chhattisgarhi, Punjabi and Kannada. He has released Hindu and Islamic devotional albums. Also, he sung several Buddhist albums, as well as albums of Mohammed Rafi's songs. These are from the Rafi Ki Yaadein collection from his early years, which were re-released in September 2007 as a six-disc collection of 100 songs, titled Kal Aaj Aur Kal, in Rafi's memory. In 2008, soon after releasingClassically Mild, he released a single Punjabi track called "Punjabi Please"[8] 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.
After the death of Michael Jackson, Nigam released a song as a tribute to Jackson. The song was included on the tribute album The Beat of Our Hearts.
Nigam collaborated with Britney Spears on a remix of her "I Wanna Go" track.
Nigam has performed in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Russia, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Caribbean|West Indies, Suriname, Mauritius, Nigeria and South Africa. In May and June 2007, he participated in a "The Incredibles" with Asha Bhosle, Kunal Ganjawala and Kailash Kher. In September and October of the same year, he gave solo concerts titled "Simply Sonu" in Canada and Germany, becoming the first Indian singer to perform in the latter country. In April 2008, he toured India promoting his Punjabi single "Punjabi Please".
In November 2007, at the inauguration of Harvard University's 28th president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Nigam sang Mahatma Gandhi's favorite 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 the 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.
Among several other concerts, 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.
2011, Nigam collaborated with Kakas Entertainment and Laxmikant-Pyarelal for "Maestros" Concert where he sang Mohammed Rafi songs.
Nigam has also sung a song "Avicii vs. Sonu Nigam - Indian Levels" produced by Avicii.
In 2014 Nigam released an online only track, "Trini Ladki".
He was ranked no 1 artist in the US Billboard Uncharted charts for two times (7 September and 5 October 2013).
In September 2015 Nignam recorded a song with the music director Khayyam for the upcoming project titled Gulam Bandhu.
Nigam's first song in Kannada was in 1996 for the film Jeevanadhi. The song's music was composed by Saluri Koteswara Rao with lyrics by R. N. Jayagopal. Nigam has sung over 700 Kannada songs. He is called the "The Golden Singer Of Karnataka".His songs include "Cheluve Yeke Bande" from the film Majnu composed by Gurukiran; "Usire Usire" from Huccha composed by Rajesh Ramnath,"Titanic Heroine nee nanna cheluve" from the film Snehaloka; the title track from the film Monalisa composed by Valisha Sandeep;[24] "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 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 became a sensation in the South and is called the Golden Singer of Karnataka. Nigam says that he finds Kannada songs more fulfilling than the Hindi numbers. Sonu Nigam, in a recent interview to the Deccan Herald news paper has said ‘Kannada songs make me feel positive’. He said, "I highly respect the musicians of Karnataka and many of my favorite 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".
With the same Mungaru Male combination, music director Mano Murthy, lyricist Jayant Kaikini and Nigam got together for a Kannada album Neene Bari Neene produced by Ashok Kheny. The songs Neene Bari Neene and Baa Nodu Gelathi were shot on the outskirts of Bengaluru featuring Nigam and model Madhuri Bhattacharya in the lead. Sonu Nigam also composed a theme song for the Karnataka Bulldozer's team in the Celebrity Cricket League. The song was sung by Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala and Sowmya Raoh, who also penned the lyrics.
In December 2012, Ningam released a single in collaboration with Avicii, a Swedish dance producer, He has been signed to be inAnkhon Ankhon Mein, about a blind singer.
