Mumbai: Today is the birthday of ‘Ghazal King’ Jagjit Singh. The legendary singer sang in many other languages besides Hindi. He was born into a Sikh family in Rajasthan.
His birth name was Jagmohan Singh Dhiman before he changed it to Jagjit Singh. He studied at DAV College Jalandhar. Singh started his career in 1961 by singing in All India Radio Jalandhar station.
Pandit Chagan Lal Sharma and later from Ustad Jamal Khan of Maihar gharana, taught and trained him in all the prominent styles of Hindustani Classical vocal tradition such as Khayal, Dhrupad, Thumri and others.
In 1965, Singh landed in Mumbai without the knowledge of his family. After a lot of struggle, Singh got a chance to sing in Hindi cinema. In 1997, when he was looking for work, he met Chitra Dutta, who was married by the time.
Chitra and Singh started liking each other. She divorced her husband and married Singh in December 1969. Chitra had revealed about her love story with Singh in an interview. She said, “I was 22 years old when I first heard a song of Jagjit Singh. I did not like his voice at all. But gradually I became obsessed with his voice.”
Singh was also the Guru of Chitra. They both used to do concerts together. By the year 1980, Singh had become the Ghazal King. Along with solo albums, Jagjit also started singing ghazals in films including Prem Geet, Arth and Saath Saath.
Chitra and Singh had a son, Vivek, who died in a road accident at the age of 20. This depressed the couple and after a year he made a comeback to the world of music.
Singh was conferred with the Padma Bhushan in 2003 by the Government of India.
In 2011, Singh was scheduled to perform with Ghulam Ali in the UK but was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai 23 September 2011 due to brain haemorrhage. He remained in a coma for about two weeks. His condition continued to deteriorate and Jagjit Singh died 10 October 2011.
