Arijit Singh Biography

Arijit Singh was born in West Bengal to a Punjabi father and a Bengali mother. He hails from a family of musicians with his maternal grandmother being a singer, maternal aunt being trained in Indian classical music, maternal uncle playing the tabla, and his mother being a singer and a tabla player, imparting music to this artist since his childhood.

He studied at Raja Bijay Singh High School and Sripat Singh College. He learnt Indian classical music from Rajendra Prasad Hazari and trained in playing the tabla under Dhirendra Prasad Hazari. He trained for Rabindra Sangeet and pop music under Birendra Prasad Hazari.

Arijit Singh first married one of his co-contestants Koyal Singh from a reality show, but got divorced. The singer then married his childhood friend Koel Roy in Tarapith temple, West Bengal in 2014. Koel was also previously married and has a daughter from her first wedding.

Career

Arijit Singh’s musical career began when his guru Rajendra Prasad Hazari, who felt that “Indian classical music was a dying tradition“, insisted he leave his hometown and participate in the reality show Fame Gurukul (2005) at the age of 18. Arijit Singh was eliminated by audience polling, finishing in sixth place.

During the show, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali recognized his talent and had him sing “Yun Shabnami” a song scheduled to be used in his upcoming film Saawariya. During production, the script changed and the song was no longer required. It was never released. After the Fame Gurukul, Kumar Taurani, the head of Tips, signed him for an album which was never released.

Arijit Singh participated in another reality show 10 Ke 10 Le Gaye Dil and won. He chose to move to Mumbai in 2006 to freelance, staying in a rented room in the Lokhandwala area of the city. He invested the prize money of ₹1 million from 10 ke 10 Le Gaye Dil to build his recording studio. He became a music producer and began composing music and singing pieces for advertisements, news channels and radio stations.

Arijit Singh spent a part of his early musical career as a music programmer and music producer for music directors such as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Mithoon, Monty Sharma and Pritam. While working with other composers he supervised the vocals, and the chorus sections, but it was while working with Pritam, that he began to produce and program music by himself.

Arijit Singh started working with Pritam on three films—Golmaal 3, Crook and Action Replayy. He started with singing scratches in the Telugu Film Industry with the 2010 film Kedi with the song “Neeve Na Neeve Na” composed by Sandeep Chowta.

Bollywood Debut

Arijit Singh made his Bollywood musical debut with the Mithoon composition, “Phir Mohabbat” from Murder 2, which though he recorded it in 2009 was released in 2011.

The same year, when he was programming for the song “Raabta” from Agent Vinod (2012)

Pritam asked him to sing as well. The part was retained in all four versions of the song, and he was made to sing the entire composition in one of the versions. Apart from Agent Vinod, Arijit Singh dubbed for Pritam in three, other films released during the year: Players, Cocktail and, Barfi! He also sang for Chirantan Bhatt in 1920: Evil Returns for the song Uska Hi Banana.

Glamsham in its review of the song “Uska Hi Banana” wrote that Arijit had sung the song intensely, emotionally and passionately and at a very high pitch.

Arijit Singh sang on Vishal–Shekhar’s composition “Duaa” in the film Shanghai.

It won Arijit Singh the Mirchi Music Award for Upcoming Male Playback Singer award. He was nominated in the same category for Phir Le Aya Dil from Barfi!

Arijit Singh breakthrough came in Aashiqui 2 where he was a lead and key vocalist and came to prominence with the release of the song “Tum Hi Ho” from the movie.

The song won him several awards and nominations including Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer. Arijit continued to work with Pritam, singing

• Dilliwaali Girlfriend
• Kabira
• Ilahi for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
• Balam Pichkari
• Main Rang Sharbaton Ka
• Dhoka Dhadi
• Kashmir Main Tu Kanyakumari
• Kabhi Jo Baadal Barse
• Laal Ishq

Working With Sajid-Wajid and A. R Rahman

Arijit Singh got the chance to work with two of his favourite music directors, Sajid–Wajid and A. R. Rahman. Arijit Singh’s performed two tracks on Main Tera Hero and the song Raat Bhar from Heropanti for Sajid-Wajid

• Medhuvaagathaan
• Samjhawan
• Aaj Phir
• Mast Magan
• Jiya
• Jaise Mera Tu
• Hai Dil Ye Mera
• Manwa Laage
• Sajde

Recent Works

In the starting of the year 2020, 10 of his songs were released. Out of these, two songs are chartbusters Shayad

• Haan Main Galat
• Khulne Do
• Sab Jhulas Gaya
• Dua Karo
• Chal Ghar Chalen
• Azaadi Ke Liye

He has also sang a song in a Bengali film, Love Aaj Kal Porshu.
On 18 July 2020, Singh announced his upcoming venture in making non-film music under the banner “Oriyon Music”.

He made an appearance in a music video from Sunny M.R.’s new single “Lifafe” on 31 July 2020.

Singh released his first single “Rihaa” under his banner Oriyon Music on 4th October, 2020; along with the Bengali version “Mukto Kore Dao” on 10th October, 2020 with the Hindi lyrics written by Shloke Lal and the Bengali lyrics written by Singh himself.

Arijit’s Inspiration

Arijit has shared his fondness for Kishore Kumar, while citing Mohit Chauhan and Atif Aslam as inspirations with whom he is often compared. Though he has been inspired by many artists, Singh named KK as his favorite singer along with Ayushmann Khurrana. He named Pritam Chakraborty, Vishal–Shekhar, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Amit Trivedi, Mithoon and A. R. Rahman as his favorite music directors. Singh has idolized Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh and Mehdi Hassan.

In an interview with Filmbeat in April 2013, he declared that he is the biggest fan of singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK). His desire to sing for Aamir Khan came to reality in 2016 with the song “Naina” from Dangal. In an interview with The Indian Express, Singh stated that he loves the work of Shalmali Kholgade, Shefali Alvares, and Irfan. He also mentioned that his “current favorite” singer is Chinmayi.

In 2016 he appeared on the popular chat and comedy show The Kapil Sharma Show aired on Sony TV India. The show’s host Kapil Sharma explained the difficulties he had bringing Singh on the show due to his shy nature.

Singh has often been portrayed by the Indian media as a “small-town boy who made it big”. He had also been trolled on social media to which he replied “I use my social media sparingly for things that are close to my heart. I don’t read the comments. My team filters out the comments for me, I don’t involve myself a lot into paying attention to criticism on social media. I speak what I want to speak and my team lets me know the needful.

Arijit Singh’s Hobbies

Apart from being a singer Arijit Singh, he is a badminton player, a writer, a movie freak and a documentary maker. He also likes cricket, football and his favorite sportsmen are Sachin Tendulkar, Lance Klusener, Sourav Ganguly, and Jonty Rhodes. He is an ardent football fan, and a self-proclaimed Manchester United fan. He has also expressed a wish to sing the anthem for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In badminton, he likes Saina Nehwal.

Arijit enjoys listening to retro songs by Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and the classical and ghazal songs along with the music of Coldplay. He expressed his desire to work with artist Norah Jones someday as he loves her music. He says he is uncomfortable with all the attention that fame has brought.

In an interview given to Mid-day.com in the December 2016, Arijit said “Independent music in India needs to be redefined” and he is working on some “independent music projects” but he believes that Bollywood music overpowers independent music, and there is a lack of infrastructure and platform for independent music in India, and it is difficult to produce it in India.

Collaboration

• Pritam – Players, Agent Vinod, Cocktail, Barfi!, Shanghai, Phata Poster Nikla Hero, R…Rajkumar, Yaariyan, Shaadi Ke Side Effects.
• Jeet Ganguly – Aashiqui 2, Youngistaan, Citylights, Singham Returns, Khamoshiyan, Mr. X, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, Boss, Rangbaaz
• Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy – Kuda Na Khasta (One By Two), Mast Magan (2 States), Sajde (KillDill), Ghayal Once Again, Raazi, Chhapaak,
• Amit Trivedi – Aaj se Teri (Padman), Woh Ladki, Dooba Dooba (Andhadhun), Kedarnath.
• Indraadip Das Gupta – Proloy, Mishawr Rawhoshyo, Hanuman.com, Chander Pahar.

Awards

• Bollywood Hungama Surfers Choice Music Awards – Aashiqui 2 & Dilwale – 2013, 2016
• Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer – Aashiqui 2, Dilwale , Roy , Ae Dil Hain Mushkil, Raazi and Kalank – 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019 & 2020.
• Gaana User’s Choice Icons – Favorite Male Artist – 2016.
• GIMA Award for Best Male Playback Singer
• Star Guild Award for Best Male Playback Singer
• IIFA Award for Best Male Playback Singer
• Music Mirchi Awards
• Mirchi Music Awards Bangla
• National Film Awards
• RMIM Puraskaar
• Screen Award for Best Male Playback
• South Indian International Movie Awards
• Stardust Awards
• Tele Cine Awards
• West Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards