Sonu Nigam

Early and personal life

Sonu Agam Kumar Nigam was born on 30 July 1973 to Agam Kumar Nigam and Shobha Agam Kumar Nigam in a Hindu Kayastha family, in the city of Faridabad, Haryana.

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. He was trained by Hindustani classical singer Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

Nigam married Madhurima sonu Nigam on 15 February 2002.

Singing and composing work

He has 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 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 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 included as Muqabla (1993), Meherban (1993), Shabnam (1993), Aag (1994), Khuddar (1994), Hulchul (1994), Stuntman (1994), Ramjaane (1995), Gaddar (1995) 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 RD Burman for this song but unfortunately this song was 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 and got a big success through this song. 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. Nigam's album Deewana, with music directed by Sajid-Wajid, was released by T-Series in 1999.

Nigam provided playback singing for Hindi movies including the title song for the film Kal Ho Naa Ho in 2003 and "Abhi Mujhme Kahin" for Agneepath in 2012.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

In 2014 Nigam released an online only track, "Trini Ladki".

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. Sonu Has Sang Around 11100 Songs In Hindi Language.

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".

From the same Mungaru Male combination, composer Murthy, lyricist Kaikini and Nigam got together to record a 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 Bengaluru 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.

Work as a host and celebrity judge

Nigam was the host of Sa Re Ga Ma music show from 1995 until 1999. He returned on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs International as a judge with Suresh Wadkar in October 2007. Nigam was a celebrity judge on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Mega Challenge grand finale on 12 December 2009 .

Nigam hosted the TV show Kisme Kitna Hai Dum on Star Plus in 2002.

He appeared as the judge on Indian Idol in seasons 1 (October 2004 – March 2005) and 2 (November 2005 – April 2006), and was a celebrity judge in seasons 3 (17 August 2007) and 4 (16 January 2009 and 6 February 2009).

In 2006, Nigam hosted Life Ki Dhun with Sonu Nigaam on Radiocity 91.1 FM, interviewing musicians.

He appeared as a celebrity judge on Amul STAR voice of India in August 2007 (Season 1) and in December 2008 (Season 2), and on the grand finale of music reality show Jo Jeeta Wohi Super Star on 12 July 2008.

Nigam was a judge/mentor on Chhote Ustaad – Do Deshon Ki Ek Awaaz (July – October, 2010) with Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and was a judge/mentor on the first season of X Factor (India) (29 May – 2 September 2011) along with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shreya Ghoshal.

On 23 August 2015, he appeared on "The Anupam Kher Show" sharing his life experiences. Currently he is one of the three judges of Indian Idol 2016–17.

Film and voice-over acting

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. He has been signed to be in Ankhon Ankhon Mein, about a blind singer. Nigam provided the voice for the lead character, in the Hindi translated version of Aladdin.

Awards and honors

Filmography

Nigam has acted in various films.

Controversies

His tweets against making Azaan (Muslim call for prayer) through loudspeaker had landed him in controversy. In his tweet he told that Azaan through loud speaker disturbs his sleep. Later he clarified that he is not against any specific religious ritual but against the use of loudspeakers on religious buildings. He clarified that noise pollution should be stopped, irrespective of whether it is from a temple or a mosque. Later Nigam again sparked controversy, when he posted a video of azaan from his home which proved that he was indeed disturbed very early in the morning. Syed Sha Atef Ali Al Quaderi, who is the vice president of West Bengal United Minority Council announced a reward of ₹10 Lakh to anyone who shaved his head, and to which Sonu Nigam responded with shaving his head.

Sonu Nigam has deleted his Twitter account on 24th May 2017, citing a lack of respect for freedom of speech.