Sonu Nigam was born on 30 July 1973 and is an Indian playback singer, music director, dubbing artist and actor.
73 Facts About Sonu Nigam
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Sonu Nigam has been described in the media as one of the best, the most popular and successful playback singers in Hindi and Kannada cinema.
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Sonu Nigam has released a number of non-film albums and acted in some Hindi films.
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Sonu Nigam is known as the "Modern Rafi", a title given to him after his musical idol Mohammad Rafi.
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Sonu Kumar Nigam was born on 30 July 1973 to Agam Kumar Nigam and Shobha Nigam in the city of Faridabad, Haryana.
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Sonu Nigam's father was from Agra and his mother was from Garhwal.
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Sonu Nigam began accompanying his father on his singing appearances at weddings and parties.
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Sonu Nigam moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career at the age of 19.
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Sonu Nigam was trained by Hindustani classical singer Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.
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Nigam had changed his name to Sonu Niigaam citing numerology beliefs, but later decided to go back to his birth name.
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Sonu Nigam has recorded Romantic, Rock, Devotional, Ghazal and Patriotic songs.
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Sonu Nigam has sung in Hindi, Odia, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, bhojpuri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Tamil and Telugu till date.
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Sonu Nigam has released pop albums in Hindi, Kannada, Odia, Chhattisgarhi and Punjabi, as well as Hindu and Islamic devotional albums.
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Sonu Nigam has performed in countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
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Sonu Nigam started his career with the song Hum To Chhaila Ban Gaye From DD1's TV serial "Talash".
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Sonu Nigam released his first album "Rafi Ki Yaadein " in 1992.
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Sonu Nigam began hosting the hugely popular TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma in 1995.
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Sonu 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.
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Sonu Nigam contributed to the lyrics of several songs and directed the music for his album Chanda Ki Doli.
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In November 2007, at the inauguration of Harvard University's 28th president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Sonu Nigam sang Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan, "Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye", with the Harvard College Sangeet.
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Sonu Nigam 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.
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In 2010, Sonu Nigam sang the popular song "Chori Kiya Re Jiya" from Dabangg as well as Tees Maar Khan title track which he sang in 54 voices.
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Sonu Nigam sang "Aye Janani" song for Kandahar in which he hit the highest note in human vocal registry with an open-throat effort without singing falsetto.
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In 2011, Sonu 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.
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Sonu Nigam performed song "Let's Go for Glory" at 2011 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony composed by Sonu Nigam himself.
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Between 2012 and 2015 many of Sonu Nigam's songs were redubbed in other singer's voices by music companies because of his fight for singers' royalties and opposition to sign illegal contracts with companies.
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Sonu Nigam said "I am not scared of being out of work because eventually good sense will prevail,".
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Sonu Nigam was nominated for Best Male Playback Singer at Filmfare Awards.
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Sonu Nigam considers Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin as one of his best songs.
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Sonu Nigam composed the title track of the film Singh Saab The Great in 2013 and has composed music for other films including: Sooper Se Ooper and Jal, in collaboration with percussionist Bickram Ghosh in the same year.
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Sonu Nigam was ranked the Number 1 artist on the US Billboard Uncharted charts twice in September and October 2013.
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Sonu Nigam sang two songs for the movie PK, "Bhagwan Hai Kahan Re Tu" and "Love is a Waste of Time", which was a duet with Shreya Ghoshal.
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In 2014, Sonu Nigam released a single called "Trini Ladki" in fusion with Chutney Music.
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In September 2015, Sonu Nigam recorded a song with the music director Khayyam for the project titled Gulam Bandhu.
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Sonu Nigam collaborated with musicians across the globe for Imagine composed by John Lennon.
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In 2016, Sonu Nigam released his single "Crazy Dil" featuring Rajkumar Hirani, Farah Khan, Sunil Grover, Kailash Kher, Natalie Di Luccio, Sonu Nigam himself with his son Nevaan.
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Sonu Nigam collaborated with Transgender band "6 Pack Band" for song 'Sab Rab De Bande'.
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In 2017 Sonu Nigam made an international collaboration, this time with Indian-American DJ kshmr on song 'Underwater'.
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Sonu Nigam sang one song in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees named "Halka Halka" but the song was not included in film because of creative reasons.
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Sonu Nigam composed one song in movie Half Widow called "Kuch Baaqi Hai" which was sung by him.
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Sonu Nigam sang one song "Aazaadiyan" with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan from Begum Jaan composed by Anu Malik.
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In 2018, Sonu Nigam collaborated with American Rapper MC Yogi for song "Hall Of Fame".
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Sonu Nigam sang song "Aye Zindagi" composed by Vishal Mishra having five other versions of Asha Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Suresh Wadkar, Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Shaan.
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Sonu Nigam teamed up with Meet Bros for dance number "Totta" feat.
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Sonu Nigam collaborated with Anu Malik for "Raat Kitni" and "Main Zinda Hoon" for movie Paltan.
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Sonu Nigam then sang the remake of "Badan Pe Sitare" originally sung by his idol Mohammad Rafi for Anil Kapoor starrer Fanney Khan.
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Sonu Nigam collaborated with Amruta Fadnavis for song "Mumbai River Anthem" to save Mumbai Rivers.
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On 14 November 2021, Sonu Nigam travelled to United Kingdom for his tour "Rafi Kishore aur Main" presented by Grace Entertainment.
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Sonu Nigam curated the show with some of the most talented and sought after musicians from across India and included some musicians who have been a part of the original compositions.
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Sonu Nigam launched his NFT Series which features his English-language single 'Hall of fame' and pages from his personal diary where he has penned down key moments of his life and details of his practice and recording session along with lyrics of his popular songs.
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Sonu Nigam became the first Indian singer to launch an NFT.
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Sonu Nigam has launched his own music label on 30 July 2020 named 'I Believe Music' and "Rudhrashtakam" is the first track to release under the label.
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Sonu Nigam has said that he finds Kannada songs more fulfilling than the Hindi numbers.
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Sonu Nigam composed a theme song for the Karnataka Bulldozers team in the Celebrity Cricket League and sang it with Kunal Ganjawala and Sowmya Raoh, who penned the lyrics.
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Sonu Nigam was the host of the Sa Re Ga Ma music show from 1995 until 1999 and became household name.
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Sonu Nigam returned on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs International as a judge with Suresh Wadkar in October 2007.
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Sonu Nigam was a celebrity judge on the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Mega Challenge grand finale on 12 December 2009.
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Sonu Nigam hosted the TV show Kisme Kitna Hai Dum on Star Plus in 2002.
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Sonu Nigam appeared as the judge on Indian Idol in seasons 1 and 2, and was a celebrity judge in seasons 3 and 4.
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Sonu Nigam appeared as a celebrity judge on STAR Voice of India in August 2007 and in December 2008, and on the grand finale of music reality show Jo Jeeta Wohi Super Star on 12 July 2008.
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Sonu has hosted 3rd Mirchi Music Awards, 6th Mirchi Music Awards, 8th Mirchi Music Awards, 9th Mirchi Music Awards, 10th Mirchi Music Awards, 11th Mirchi Music Awards, 13th Mirchi Music Awards and 14th Mirchi Music awards In 2021, Sonu Nigam appeared as one of the judges in the Bengali music reality show Super Singer Season 3 on Star Jalsha, along with Kumar Sanu and Kaushiki Chakraborty.
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Sonu Nigam is considered as one of the most popular playback singers in Bollywood, and is widely considered to have inspired new singers in the Bollywood industry.
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Sonu Nigam is often compared to Mohammad Rafi for similar voice texture.
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Sonu Nigam is serious about his music, has learnt classical and sings with confidence.
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Sonu Nigam has received 17 nominations for Filmfare best playback singer, 10 nominations for Filmfare awards South and is a winner of record 4 times for IIFA Award for Best Male playback singer and received Oscar Academy Awards nomination in 2014 for soundtrack of Jal composed by Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh together.
66.
Sonu Nigam was ranked the Number 1 artist on the US Billboard Uncharted charts twice in September and October 2013.
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Sonu Nigam later clarified that he is not against any specific religious ritual, but against the use of loudspeakers on religious buildings.
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Sonu Nigam said that the use of loudspeaker to create noise pollution should be stopped beyond certain time as per the law of the land, irrespective of whether it is from a temple, mosque, gurudwara, or any other place.
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Later, Sonu 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.
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Sonu Nigam deactivated his Twitter account in 2017 citing lack of freedom of speech, and said that sensible discussions were not possible due to the polarised atmosphere.
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In June 2020, after the demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Sonu Nigam posted a video saying that the music industry is monopolized by two major companies and that he had faced similar discrimination.
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Sonu Nigam urged these music companies to be fair and kind to the newcomers in the music industry.
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Sonu Nigam maintained that he didn't name anyone and was only putting up his point of view regarding the malpractices in the music industry of Bollywood.