Chitra Singh

Chitra Singh

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Category: Music

Chitra Singh Profile

  • Name:
  • Chitra Singh
  • Other Name:
  • Chitra Shome
  • Spouse:
  • Jagjit Singh

Chitra Singh Biography

Chitra Singh is an accomplished and well known Indian Ghazal singer. She along with her husband Jagjit Singh, the renowned ghazal singer, has performed in hundreds of concerts in India and abroad and has never performed alone. The blessed couple has released many leading musical albums too, belonging to ghazal category. She has also rendered her voice for a few Hindi film songs. "Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar" is one such popular rendition. She supported her husband and has been the main source of his power throughout his life. She married this blessed singer after her divorce with Debo Prasad Dutta.  

 

Her maiden name is Chitra Shome. She was born into a Bengali family. Though she didn’t have any formal training in music, she had great passion to music since younger age. An average student in studies, after education, she took on a secretarial job in Kolkata. She got married to Debo Prasad Dutta, an executive in a leading advertising agency. Monica was born in this wed lock. Debo quit business and started a recording studio, where Jagjit Singh, a struggling singer then, used to frequently visit for music recordings. Chitra met Jagjit in those days and took a shine to the Punjabi Singh.

 

Jagjit recognized that Chitra’s voice well suited jingles. Though he pursued Chitra to do it as a profession to earn a better living, it was clearly opposed by Debo Prasad Dutta and his conservative family, who never wanted women to sing. But one day when a female singer for a jingle was absent, Debo gave that chance to his wife and she performed with Jagjit for the first time. Deeply impressed by her performance, Debo gave her more opportunities and she regularly performed with Singh. Thus Chitra Dutta and Jagjit Singh did all jingles for Dutta's ad agency. After her divorce with Debo, she married Singh. Chitra took Monica with her.

 

Jagjit was still struggling with his career and when he married a divorced woman with a kid, it was not easy for society to accept then. The couple were disowned and cursed by their families too. They continued with singing jingles for radio and TV advertisements. They also worked in posh hotels as singers, which earned them better money. A son was born to them in the late 1960s. With 1970s, their singing was appreciated by elite members of the society which later helped them in career building too. Someone recommended their name to HMV and thus the couple got opportunity to release their first album - The Unforgettables in 1977 which was a great success. Since then there was no turning back.

 

With a bit fortune, they shot to fame with hit songs one after the other. "Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar", "Tum Aao To Sahi", "Woh Nahin Milta Mujhe", "Saare Badan Ka Khoon", "Ishq Mein Ghairat-e-jazbaat Ne", "Aaye Hain Samjhane Log", "Uski Hasrat Hai Jise Dile Se Mita Bhi Na Sakoon" and "Mitti Da Bawa" are some of their popular renditions. Known for her high pitch voice, it provided a suitable counterfoil for Jagjit's deep, low and dulcet baritone. "Duti Mon Ar Nei Dujonar", "Ki Dile Amai Tumi?", "Bujhini To Ami", "Amar Chokher Joler Majhe" etc are her popular Bengali songs. The couple made man innovations, which made ghazals acceptable to Hindus and Sikhs as well.

 

In 1990, the couple lost their son Vivek in an accident at the age of 20 and deeply depressed, they gave up music for a full year after the death. Though Jagjit Singh slowly returned to music, Chitra never returned. She also faced personal tragedies like two divorces of her daughter, followed by her suicide. After the death of Jagjit in 2011, she became more visible in media, for promoting causes to honour her husband's memory.

Published: N/A

Updated: March 12, 2016

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