Sukhwinder Singh is a famous playback singer who sang for many Bollywood and Punjabi Songs. He was born in Amritsar, Punjab on July 18, 1971. His music career started when he released a Punjabi album Munda Southhall Da in collaboration with T. Singh. After that he got into Laxmikant–Pyarelal’s troupe, and then he became a music arranger before going to South India looking for work, where, he got a chance for singing in a Tamil film Ratchagan. He didn’t get much success in south, he went to Bombay and got his first break as a singer in Khilaaf and went on to doing few more movies but he went totally unnoticed. He didn’t get much offers and he realized that he is lacking somewhere in his singing and took a trip to England and America to witness, hear, and understand several forms of music. The tour changed his life in a way that it broadened his musical horizons; he came back to Mumbai to start his career once again.
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His life changed in 1998 when he sang the song Chaiyan Chaiyan in Mani Ratnam’s Dil se…where the music was by the Mozart of Madras, A.R Rahman and lyrics by Gulzar. The song was shot in roof of a train which was choreographed by and featured Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora. The whole album of Dil se.. is considerd as a classic but it was Chaiya Chaiya that became quite famous and it fetched him his fist Filmfare Award for Best Singer. After that there was no looking back from him and became a very successful playback singer. He mostly collaborated with A.R Rahman and Vishal Bhardwaj also to an extent but he worked in other music directors also. After Chaiya Chaiya, he sang the song ‘Main ramta jogi’ from Taal and the music was composed by A.R Rahman and it became a big hit. His other notable works were “Ghanan Ghanan” from Lagaan, “Omkara” from “Omkara”,”Dard-E-Disco”, “Om Shanti Om”, “Chak de” from Chak De India,”Dhan Te Nan” from “Kaminey and the Oscar and Grammy award-winning “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”
He has been the voice of Shahrukh Khan and they give many hit songs together like Chaiya Chaiya,Chak De, Haule Haule, Dard-E-Disco, Om Shanti (medley mix), Isaaqbazi, Marjani etc.
Sukhwinder Singh’s song “Jai Ho”, got him international recognition when it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 2010. He also received the prestigious National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer at the 62nd National Film Awards in 2014 for the Haider whose music was composed by Vishal Bhardwaj. Most of us don’t know that he composed music for films like “Biwi No. 1” (1999), “Astitva” (2000) and “Halla Bol” (2008) and writes lyrics sometimes.
