Jagjit Singh

Born: Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner State, British India

Known as "The Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian ghazal singer Chitra Singh. Together, they were popular in the 1970s and the 1980s as the first ever successful husband-wide duo act in the history of recorded Indian music. Together, they are considered to be the pioneers of modern ghazal singing and regarded as the most successful recording artistes outside the realm of Indian film music. He has sung in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Sindhi and Nepali languages. He was awarded India's third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 2003.

Singh is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by simplifying the complex form of ghazals into a simpler form of ghazals by amalgamating ghazal and geet. His music became popular in mass media through films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Jagjit Singh is considered to be the most popular ghazal singer and composer of all time in terms of commercial success. With a career spanning over five decades and a repertoire comprising 80 albums, the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining. He is the only composer and singer to have composed and recorded songs written by Prime Minister - Atal Behari Vajpayee - also a critically acclaimed poet - in two albums, Nayi Disha (1999) and Samvedna (2002).

Jagjit Singh was the first Indian composer (and together with his wife Chitra Singh the first recording artist) in the history of Indian music to use digital multi-track recording for their album Beyond Time (1987). Together with sitar player Ravi Shankar and other leading figures of Indian classical music and literature, Singh had voiced his concerns over politicisation of arts and culture in India and lack of support experienced by the practitioners of India's traditional art forms, particularly folk artists and musicians. He had lent active support to several philanthropic endeavors such as the library at St. Mary's School, Mumbai, Bombay Hospital, CRY, Save the Children and ALMA.

He also sang tracks for a number of popular movies, including Sarfarosh.

"He was the first real ghazal singer from India. Before him there were clones. The poetry in his music was beautiful," actor Anupam Kher said in a tribute."His music was gentle, soothing and went to your heart." Ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas said that Singh had made ghazal so accessible that his audiences "could sing along with him".

Died: Mumbai, India

Avots: Wikipedia, BBC