Jagjit Singh

Jagjit Singh was an Indian classical singer, composer, and musician known during his lifetime as "The Ghazal King." After Ravi Shankar, he is considered one of post-colonial India's most important and recognizable artists, and certainly its best-selling due to his soundtracks and scores for film and television, and his musical interpretation of the works of poets. Including scores, he recorded over 60 albums during his lifetime. He is known not only for his ghazals and singing in several languages, but also for Indian light classical music, including thumri and bhajan. He and his wife, ghazal singer Chitra Singh, came to prominence during the '70s and '80s and revived the style of traditional singing that had languished since the late '50s. Composing in the Bol-pradhan style (sung poetry and vocal improvisation over set musical arrangements), he used simple melodies and modes to accompany lyrics that were considered current and relevant to contemporary life. Singh, a Sikh, was born in the Punjab's Rajastan area. He began his musical studies at the Khalsa College Sr. Sec. School and pursued them at Khalsa College, Sriganganagar. He attained an arts degree and pursued post-graduate studies at Kurukshetra University in Haryana. He studied with Pandit Chhaganlal Sharma and Ustad Jamaal Khan. He began his professional singing and composing career for All India Radio in 1961. He moved to Mumbai in 1965 to try to establish himself as either a singer