Biography
Jagjit Singh (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was an Indian composer, singer and musician, considered the most successful singer and composer of the ghazal, a classical Indian art form. With a career spanning five decades and many albums, the range and quality of his work has been seen as instrumental in the revival of the ghazal.Born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India, his father was a surveyor in the Ministry of Public Works and had hoped that his son would follow his science, however the son showed great enthusiasm and talent for music; from his teenage years he composed songs and performed in amateur scenes. Singh earned a bachelor of arts degree from Jalandhar College and later did a master's degree in history in Kurukshetra University in Haryana. He started his professional career in 1961 working at the Jalandhar station of All India Radio and in March 1965 he moved to Mumbai where there were many opportunities for musical artists due to the Hindi film industry. He first worked as a commercial song performer and later moved on to composing and performing songs for films.
Singh was still struggling to make a living in 1967 when he met Chitra Dutta who divorced her husband and married him in December 1969. After the birth of their son, the couple performed as a duo and in 1977 released the album ' The Unforgettable' which became a big hit and made them famous.
Since then they have performed concerts around the world and recorded songs that became big hits, while Singh also composed music for films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth (1982) and Saath Saath (1982) and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). The collaboration with his wife ended in 1990 when their 20-year-old son died in a car accident and she decided not to sing again. He too was affected and his mood changed, his sadness was often evident at concerts, but he continued to work and make great hits.
Singh suffered from several ailments including diabetes and hypertension during his later life and had undergone two heart surgeries in 1998 and 2007. To celebrate his 70th birthday in 2011, he scheduled 70 concerts in various parts of world. He toured the UK, Singapore, Mauritius among others and was scheduled to perform in Mumbai but missed out as he suffered a brain haemorrhage on 23 September, fell into a coma and finally died on 10 October 2011.