On 30 July 1973, famous Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam was born in Faridabad, Haryana.
Nigam is one of Bollywood’s most popular and sought after singers today and began singing since he was four years old, accompanying his father Agam Kumar Nigam on stage singing Mohammad Rafi’s popular “Kya hua tera vaada”. Trained by famous Hindustani classical music guru, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Sonu Nigam soon began accompanying his father who would perform at wedding functions. By the age of 19, Nigam moved to Mumbai where he tried to get work in Bollywood films as a playback singer.
Nigam’s initial years in Mumbai were a struggle and he began by singing covers of Rafi’s songs for music albums released by record company T- Series. Heavily inspired by Mohammed Rafi, many people began to refer to Sonu Nigam as a “Rafi clone”. In 1992, Nigam sang his first song for a Hindi film named Janam which never released, after which he began doing radio commercials.
In 1995, Nigam began hosting a talent show on T.V called Sa Re Ga Ma, which went on to become a mega success through which Nigam gained recognition in the music world. Soon after this he sang the song “Accha Sila Diya”, for the film Bewafa Sanam (1995), though his first hit song was “Sandese aate hai” from the film Border (1997). Nigam released his first music album titled “Deewana” in 1999 and all the romantic numbers in the album were a huge hit. After the album, Nigam’s next hit song was “Yeh Dil Deewana” for the film Pardes (1999), which broke the image he had acquired of imitating Rafi. Over time Sonu Nigam has won numerous awards for his songs and has sung in many languages apart from Hindi, such as Kannada, Assamese, Bangla, Punjabi, Tamil, Oriya, Nepali, Malayalam and Marathi, among others.
Sonu Nigam has collaborated with many international artists like Britney Spears. After the death of Michael Jackson, who was a great influence on him, Sonu Nigam released an album in Jackson’s memory, titled 'The Beat of our Hearts'. Nigam has performed live all over the world in countries like the U.S, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Australia, South East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Apart from that, Sonu Nigam has also been working on two English albums titled 'Spirit Unfolding' and 'Time Travel'. He has also sung a song produced by popular singer David Guetta, in collaboration with British singer Jay Sean.
Besides Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Sonu Nigam had made appearances on several TV shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs, Indian Idol, Amul Star Voice of India, Chhote Ustad and X Factor, among others. Apart from singing, Nigam has also tried his hand at acting and was seen in films such as Betaab, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahaani and Love in Nepal.
Today Sonu Nigam is a favourite among music directors, actors and audiences and has carved a niche for himself as an established singer.
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