Sukhwinder Singh is an Indian singer best known for working as Bollywood playback artist. Singh is famous for singing "Chaiyya Chaiyya" for which he won the Best Male Playback Award at the 1999 Filmfare Awards. The song, from Mani Ratnam's 1998 film Dil Se.., was composed by A. R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung in duet with Sapna Awasthi. It was also featured in the musical Bombay Dreams and, in remixed arrangements, in the titles and credits segments of Spike Lee's 2006 film, Inside Man. Singh later gained more international fame for singing "Jai Ho" from the film Slumdog Millionaire, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Biography

Singh originally comes from Amritsar, Punjab. He first performed on stage at the age of 8, singing the Kishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar number "Sa re ga ma pa, pa, pa, ga ma re, ga re mere sang mere saajna", from the 1970 movie Abhinetri. He also released a Punjabi album called Munda Southhall Da with T. Singh joined Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s troupe and quickly became a music arranger, before heading to the south of India to look for work. At this time he did a film called Rakshakudu.

Singh got his break in the movie Karma, in which he sang a few lines; then he did a Madhuri Dixit film called Khilaaf, in which he sang the hit song "Aa ja Sanam". But the singer realised that something was missing in his voice, took a sabbatical and left Mumbai to tour England and America to see, hear and understand various forms of music. After this broadening of his musical horizons, he returned to Mumbai to kick-start his musical career.

His first effort in Hindi films, Aaja Sanam, went largely unnoticed, even though the music carried the names of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Then, along came Dil Se... A. R. Rahman used Sukhwinder for "Chaiyya Chaiyya". The other films that followed – including Taal, Biwi No. 1, 1947 Earth, Daag, Jaanwar, Dillagi, Moksha, Thakshak, Tere Naam, Apna Sapna Money Money, Shadi Se Pehle, Shabd, Chak de! India, Om Shanti Om and Black and White- have made him a household name.

He has been well received for providing playback singing for Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan in a total of 6 songs. Of these, "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from Dil Se.., "Dard-E-Disco" from Om Shanti Om, "Chak De India" from Chak De! India, "Haule Haule" from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and "Marjaani" from Billu all went on to become certified hits.

Singh has provided playback for many notable Bollywood heroes including Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Arjun Rampal, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tusshar Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Sanjay Dutt, Ranbir Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, Shabbir Ahluwalia and Rohit Roy Sunny Deol.