Jagjit Singh Biography 
Jagjit Singh is an Indian Ghazal singer and music director. He is called as The Ghazal King. His wife Chitra Singh also is a renowned Indian Ghazal singer who was very popular in 1970s and 1980s. He has sung songs in many languages like Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Sindhi, and Nepali. He received Padma Bhushan award in the year 2003 for his contribution to music.
He was born on 8th February 1941 in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan. His parents are Amar Singh Dhiman and Bachan Kaur. He has four sisters and two brothers. His nickname is Jeet. He studied at Khalsa High School in Sri Ganganagar and finished his matriculation examination at Government College. Then he studied science and graduated in arts at DAV College at Jalandhar. He received his post graduation in history from Kurukshetra University in Haryana.
His guru in his younger days was Pandit Chaganlal Sharma. He learnt Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms of classical music of India from Ustad Jamaal Khan. He married the popular singer Chitra Singh in 1969. They lost only son Vivek in a road accident on 28th July 1990. He and his wife jointly released their last Ghazal album Someone Someone which is about the tour of the soul, mourning on their deep personal loss.
He went to Mumbai in 1965 and searched for better opportunities. He released many Ghazal albums. Some of his notable films are Prem Geet, Saath Saath, Arth, Dushman, Sarfarosh, Tum Bim and Tarkeeb. His career spans over five decades with 80 album releases. He composed and recorded songs written by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and these albums are Nayi Disha and Samvedna.
He is the first Indian composer to use digital multi-track recording for his album, Beyond Time in 1987. Besides Ghazals he has also sung Bhajans and Gurbani forms of music. His famous albums are Hare Krishna, Maa, Hey Ram…Hey Ram, Ichhabal and Man Jeetai Jagjeet. He received Teacher’s Achievement Award in 2006. In January 1998 he suffered with heart attack.
His last concert was held on 20 September 2011 in The Indian Public School, Dehradun. He died on 10 October 2011 at the age of 70 in Mumbai at Lilavati hospital.
Published: N/A
Updated: October 11, 2011
