Birth Name: Sonu Kumar Nigam
Spouse: Madhurima Nigam
Sonu Nigam was born to Mr Agam Kumar Nigam and Mrs Shobha Nigam on July 30, 1973 in Faridabad, Haryana, India. He attended the J.D. Tytler School. He has two sisters, Meenal and Neekita. Sonu is very close to his parents. Both his father and mother are good singers, and in 2005 and 2007 his father released two highly popular albums, "Bewafaai" and "Phir Bewafaai", respectively. Neekita is also a singer. She has sung a few playback songs and appeared on a few stage shows with Sonu. Sonu married Madhurima on 15 February 2002. They have a son, Nevaan, born on July 25, 2007.He is very much into fitness and yoga exercises, and has even trained in taekwondo. He claims to be spiritual rather than religious. He used to be keen at his studies in his younger age and enjoys reading. He also enjoys mimicry and commonly mimics other singers in Bollywood.
He 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, he accompanied his father on his singing appearances at weddings and parties. In his teenage years, he 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 his singing style was regarded by some as like a "Rafi clone." His first movie song as a playback singer was in the film Janam (1990), which was never officially released. He 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. He 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. His 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, he 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. He has sung with clear pronunciations, in many languages besides Hindi, including Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Punjabi,Tamil, Telugu, English, Bhojpuri, 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 Kannada album called Neene Bari Neene released all over in 2009.
In 2006, he also hosted his own radio show called 'Life Ki Dhun With Sonu Niigaam' on Radiocity 91.1 FM, where he had the opportunity to interview several music industry greats, including the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.His acting career started as a child artist in a number of films including 1983's Betaab. As an adult, Sonu has acted in a few more films, namely Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani alongside Sunny Deol, Manisha Koirala and Akshay Kumar as well as other actors; Kash Aap Hamare Hote, where he plays the male lead opposite Juhi Babbar, daughter of Raj Babbar; and most recently, Love in Nepal with 'Flora Saini' and 'Sweta Keswani,' where he again plays a leading role. However it is to be said that all three films have not done well at the box-office. although his acting was much better appreciated in his last venture.
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.
His future projects include an English album called "Spirit Unfolding".He may be acting in a new film called Ankhon Hi Ankhon Mein, about a blind singer, although he has not officially signed it yet. He is also doing playback singing for a number of upcoming films, including Chandan Arora's Striker, Yaariyan, Run Mein Fun and Three Idiots starring Aamir Khan, with Shantanu Moitra as music director.He is also singing two songs for the film Blue,chiggy wiggy with international artist Kylie Minogueand rehnuma with shreya ghosal in the music of Oscar winner A.R.Rahman.He has already recorded dont say alvida for Main Aur Mrs.Khanna,which have Salman and Kareena in lead roles and the title track and Aashique tumse hi for karan johars My Name Is Khan.
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