Kabir Suman Biography 
Kabir Suman is a singer, lyricist, musician, poet, journalist, political activist, TV presenter and occasional actor from Bengal. He is a politician from All India Trinamool Congress also. Since May 2009, he is a member of parliament of India in the 15th Lok Sabha, elected from the Jadavpur constituency in Kolkata. His real name is Suman Chattopadhyay. He converted his name when he got converted to Islam. Top Bengali albums during 1990’s - Tomake Chai and Boshe Anko made him an iconic figure of Bengali music. Suman has married 5 times in his life, the last one being Sabina Yasmin, a Bangladeshi singer.
Suman was born on 16 March 1949 to Sudhindranath and Uma Chattopadhyay at Cuttack, Odisha. His father taught him classical music at a younger age. He graduated from Jadavpur University in English Literature with honours. He worked briefly for All India Radio as well as a bank employee. Later he worked as a radio journalist in the Voice of Germany during 1975 to 1979. It was during this time when he got attracted to music. In 1980, he joined as Bengali language Department of the Voice of America at Washington D.C., where he worked till 1986. During this time, he got associated with many musicians abroad and later converted to Islam as well. Apart from him attachment to music, he holds strong political views as well.
He became most active in music during the decade of 1990’s and 2000’s. Two albums, Tomake Chai and Boshe Anko gave him instant fame. Tomake Chai, was a collection of self-composed songs on themes which triggered a trend in contemporary Bengali music. He later recorded over 200 songs in more than 15 albums. He has also sung a few songs for Bengali movies which won him awards as well. He decided to get rid of his Hindu Brahmin identity on the day when Australian missionary, Graham Staines and his two boys were burnt alive by Hindu fundamentalists in 1999.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 27, 2014
