Sonu Nigam

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• Date of Birth: 30 July, 1973
• Place of Birth: Faridabad, Haryana, India
• Biography: Sonu Nigam , born July 30, 1973 in Faridabad, Haryana, India, is a playback singer whose songs have been featured in numerous Bollywood movies. He has also released numerous Indi-pop albums. He changed the spelling of his last name from Nigam to Niigaam to reflect an auspicious number in astrology. Sonu was born in Faridabad to parents Agam Kumar Nigam and Shobha Nigam. He has 2 sisters called Meenal and Neekita. He attended D J Tyler school.
  
  Sonu Nigam is very close to his parents. His mother and father are both very good singers and his father - Agam Kumar Nigam - had a major hit with his album Bewafaai in 2005. He has come back with another hit this year in Phir Bewafaai. He has two sisters, one of whom - Nikita - is also a singer. She has sang a few playback songs and a few stage shows with Sonu. Sonu married his wife Madhurima on 15 February 2002. Although he has had some problems in his marriage and the two apparently had a short period of separation some time back, they are now back together and their relationship is going strong. In fact, Sonu Nigam became a father on 26 July 2007 to his son Nevaan (which means Holy).
  
  Sonu Nigam started his singing career at the age of three, when he joined his father on stage to sing Mohammad Rafi's "Kya Hua Tera Wada". He proceeded from then on to accompany his father on his singing assignments in weddings and parties. He participated in several music competitions in his teenage years and won them all until he was not allowed to participate any more! He moved to Mumbai with his father in search of his proper singing career at the mere age of 18. His initial years in Mumbai proved to be a struggle, and Sonu started by singing covers of Mohammad Rafi songs, mainly for the "Rafi Ki Yaadein" album series. His first movie song as a playback singer was in the film "Janum" which was a major flop in (1990). This film was not officially released due to some reason but some considered it as a flop. Again he got a break as a playback singer in Gulshan Kumar's film Aaja Meri Jaan and then "Accha Sila Diya Tune" (also sung in Gujarati) from "Bewafa Sanam" (1995). The latter was what gave him the recognition needed as a singer. At this time, he also started hosting "Sa Re Ga Ma", a television singing talent competition that became one of the most popular shows on television. The first episode was aired on May 1, 1995. Thereafter, the singing offers poured in, albeit slowly at first. He shot to fame with the song "Sandese Aate Hai" from Border (1997), the music of which was directed by Anu Malik. In the initial stages, he was type-cast as a Rafi-sound-alike. The image was transformed after his brilliant rendition of "Yeh Dil Deewana" in the film Pardes (1997). Since then, he has created a unique trademark style of his own. Over the years, Sonu Nigam has become a major force in the music industry. Sonu has sung playback for countless Hindi movies and has won many awards for them. His rendition of Kal Ho Na Ho is considered a modern legend of sorts. He is generally acclaimed for his versatile voice as well as his excellent emoting in his songs. He is also a popular playback singer for many regional movies, singing effortlessly in many languages from Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali to Tamil, Telugu and many more. He is very famous in the south for his clear pronunciation of non-native languages like Tamil, Kannada etc. His recent hits include Mungaaru Male in Kannada and Kireedom in Tamil. A.R. Rahman introduced Sonu Nigam to tamil music in his superhit venture Jeans (film)(1997) directed by ace director S. Shankar.