SONU NIGAM

Sonu Nigam or Sonu Niigaam (Punjabi: ਸੋਨੁ ਨਿਗਮ੍; born July 30, 1973 in Faridabad, Haryana, India) is a highly acclaimed Indian playback singr whose songs have been featured in numerous Hindi and Kannada movies. He has also released numerous Indi-pop albums and acted in a few Hindi feature films. He has changed the spelling of his last name from 'Nigam' to 'Niigaam' in accordance with numerology.

Career
Early years and playback singing
Sonu Nigam began his singing career at the age of three, when he joined his father on stage to sing Mohammad Rafi's "Kya Hua Tera Wada." From then on, Sonu accompanied his father on his singing appearances at weddings and parties. In his teenage years, Nigam participated in several music competitions successfully. He moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career at the age of 19.
His initial years in Mumbai proved to be a struggle, beginning by singing covers of Mohammad Rafi songs, mainly for a number of "Rafi Ki Yaadein" albums released by T-Series. T-Series promoter Gulshan Kumar played a key role in identifying Sonu's talent and giving him a chance to reach a larger audience. These albums contributed to T-Series for some years although Sonu's singing style was regarded by some as like a "Rafi clone." Nigam's first movie song as a playback singer was in the film Janam (1990), which was never officially released. Sonu also got a break in several radio commercials until he appeared on the popular TV show Sa Re Ga Ma, after which there was no turning back. The format of that show gave him a chance to showcase his singing skills including his later well-known natural charm and audience appeal. Then he sang "Accha Sila Diya" on the album Bewafa Sanam (1995), which established his status as a recognized playback singer.
Sonu then started hosting Sa Re Ga Ma, a television singing talent competition, which soon became one of the most popular shows on Indian television. The first episode of "Sa Re Ga Ma" was aired on May 1, 1995. Singing offers poured in thereafter, albeit slowly at first. He rose to fame with the Anu Malik composed song "Sandese Aate Hain," in Border in 1997. Sonu's image as a Rafi clone changed after his rendition of the Nadeem-Shravan composed song "Yeh Dil Deewana" in Pardes in the same year. Since then, he has created a unique style of his own, and has become a role model for emerging vocal talent in India.
Over the years, Sonu has become a major force in the Indian music industry. He has provided playback singing for a large number of Hindi movies and won many awards. His rendition of the title song of the film Kal Ho Na Ho has been highly popular and is considered a modern legend of sorts. He is recognised for his versatile voice as well as excellent emotion range. Sonu has sung with clear pronunciations, in many languages besides Hindi, including Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Punjabi,Taml, Telugu, English, Bhojpui, Urdu, Nepali and Marathi.He remains particularly popular in Southern India for his Kannada songs and has won a few awards in this particular industry.
His 2008 playback songs include songs from Yuvvraaj and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. In the latter, he pays tribute to Bollywood actors of the past like Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand and Rishi Kapoor. The song is in a Shahrukh Khan film and the music direction is by Salim-Sulaiman.