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Sukhwinder Singh

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Sukhwinder Singh is an Indian playback singer, composer, lyricist and producer who works mainly for Hindi films. He was born in 1971 in Amritsar, Punjab, into a Sikh family. As a young man he did athletics and sprinting, before music began to interest him more. He took music lessons from the Punjabi musician B. S. Narang and began a music career at seventeen. After that he released the Punjabi album Munda Southhall Da, together with T. Singh.

Music and breakthrough

The composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal noticed him. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he worked for them as a musical arranger and sang in choruses and in short fragments of songs. One of his first recordings was Chitti Aayi Hai from the film Naam in 1986. His first solo came with Aaja Sanam in the film Khilaaf in 1991. In 1997 he made his debut in a Tamil film with Lucky Lucky from Ratchagan, composed by A. R. Rahman. His great breakthrough followed with Chaiyya Chaiyya from Dil Se.. in 1998, also by Rahman, for which he received a Filmfare Award. He also sang in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali.

Influence

In 2008 he was among the singers of Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, the song that received an Oscar and a Grammy. His second Filmfare Award was for Haule Haule from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and for Bismil from Haider he received the National Film Award for best male playback singer in 2014. In this way he is one of the best-known voices of Indian film music, and he brought the sound of Bollywood to a worldwide audience.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Chaiyya Chaiyya. Notice the powerful, full voice of the singer and how the rhythm of the drums pulls you along, as if you were on a moving train.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists