List of Indian playback singers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of Indian playback singers. The list is alphabetized by first name.

[edit] Female playback singers

Name	Languages	Years active	Major awards	Comments
Alisha Chinoy	Hindi	1985-present	1 Filmfare Awards
Alka Yagnik	Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi	1978-present	2 National Awards, 7 Filmfare Awards, 2 IIFA Awards, 3 Zee Cine Awards, 2 Star Screen Awards, 1 MTV Award, 1 Sansui Award
Amirbai Karnataki	Hindi	1935-1961
Anupama Deshpande	Hindi, Telugu, English, Tamil
Anuradha Paudwal	Hindi, Marathi, Tamil	1973-present	4 Filmfare Awards, 2 National Awards
Anuradha Sriram	Hindi, Telugu ,Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam
Anushka Manchanda	Hindi, Tamil	2006-present
Asha Bhosle	Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, English, Russian, Czech, Nepali, Malay, Malayalam, Konkani and other languages	1943-present	Padma Vibhushan, 2 National Awards, 7 Filmfare Award (plus Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award), 2 MTV Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Award	Wife of Rahul Dev Burman and younger sister of Usha Mangeshkar and Lata Mangeshkar
Banumathi	Telugu, Tamil		Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan
B.R. Chaya	Kannada		2 Karnataka State Awards	Rendered voice for 4000 non filmy albums in Kannada
Chitra Singh	Hindi-Urdu			Wife of Jagjit Singh
Gayatri Asokan	Malayalam		Kerala State Film Award
Gayatri Iyer (Gayatri Ganjawala)	Hindi	1996-present
Geeta Dutt	Hindi	1946-1971
Harini	Telugu, Tamil, Hindi
Hema Sardesai	Hindi	1989-present
Jaspinder Narula	Hindi, Punjabi		1 Filmfare Award, 1 Star Screen Award
Jikki	Telugu
Jyotsna Radhakrishnan	Malayalam	1998-present	Lux-Asianet Film Award
Kalpana	Telugu
Kavita Subramaniam (Kavita Krishnamurthy)	Hindi, Tamil, Kannada	1980-current	4 Filmfare Awards, Padma Shri
K.S. Chitra	Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Bengali, English, Russian, German, Tulu, Sinhalese, Paduku and few more	1983-present	6 National Awards, Padma Shri, 15 Kerala State Awards, 7 Andhra Pradesh State Awards, 4 Tamil Nadu State Awards, 2 Karnataka State Awards
Lata Mangeshkar	Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and many other languages	1942-2006	Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, 3 National Awards, 3 Filmfare Awards, 2 Maharashtra State Awards	Sister of Usha Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle
L.R. Easwari	Telugu, Malayalam
Mahalakshmi	Telugu
Mahalaxmi Iyer	Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, English, French and other languages	1997-present
Malathi	Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada
Malgadi Subha	Hindi, Telugu, Tamil
Manjari	Malayalam, Tamil	2004-present	1 Kerala State Award
Mubarak Begum	Hindi, Urdu	1955-1968
Nihira Joshi	Hindi, Marathi	2004-present
Nityashree	Telugu
Noor Jehan	Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi Sindhi	1930-1996	Tamgha-e-Imtiaz	Migrated to Pakistan in 1947
P. Leela	Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu		1 Kerala State Award
P. Madhuri	Malayalam		2 Kerala State Awards
Dr. P. Susheela	Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Sinhalese, Tulu, sanskrit, padugu	1951-present	Padma Bhushan, 5 National Awards, 7 Andhra Pradesh State Awards, 3 Tamil Nadu State Awards, 2 Kerala State Awards, Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, Doctorate from Andhra university
Rajkumari	Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi	1949-1977
Rimi Tomi	Malayalam	2000-present
Ruma Guha Thakurta	Bengali, Hindi	1944-present
Dr. S. Janaki	Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi.	1957-Present	4 National Awards, 14 Kerala State Awards, 10 Andhra Pradesh State Awards, 7 Tamil Nadu State Awards	Also a lyricist and composer
S.P. Sailaja	Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, malayalam	1978-2001		Also a dubbing artist and a classical dancer; younger sister of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Sadhana Sargam	Hindi, Marathi ,Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, all other major Indian languages, Urdu and Nepali	1982-present	1 National Award, 1 Zee Cine Award
Sapna Mukherjee	Hindi	1985-present	1 Filmfare Award
Shamshad Begum	Hindi,urdu	1941-1968
Shreya Ghoshal	Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada	2002-present	2 National Awards, 5 Filmfare Awards, 3 Zee Cine Awards
Shubha Mudgal	Hindi	1996-present
Shweta Pandit	Hindi	1999-present
Sudha Malhotra	Hindi	1954-1982
Sujatha	Tamil, Malayalam	1977-present	3 Tamil Nadu State Awards, 2 Kerala State Awards
Suman Kalyanpur	Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi	1954-1981
Sumangali	Telugu , Tamil
Sunidhi Chauhan	Hindi, Kannada	2000-present	1 Filmfare Award, Filmfare R.D. Burman Award, 1 Zee Cine Award, 1 IIFA Award, 2 Star Screen Awards
Suraiya	Hindi, Urdu	about 1942-1965		Also an actress
Swarnalatha	Tamil		1 National Award
Swetha Mohan	Malayalam		1 Kerala State Award	Daughter of singer Sujatha
Tulsi Kumar	Hindi
Usha	Telugu	1999-present	3 Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Awards
Usha Mangeshkar	Marathi, Hindi	1954-present		Sister of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle
Usha Uthup	Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, English, Russian, Czech, Nepali, Malay, Malayalam, Kannada, and other languages	1966-present	Rajiv Gandhi Purashkar Award, Mahila Shiromoni Purashkar Award, Channel V Award, The People's Support Award
Vani Jayaram	Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi, Kannada	1971-1992	3 National Awards
Vasundhara Das	Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil	1999-present

Notes:

Filmfare Award refers to the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award
National Award refers to the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer
IIFA Award refers to the IIFA Best Female Playback Award
Zee Cine Award refers to the Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer- Female
Other awards: Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri
For languages, see Languages of India.

[edit] Male playback singers

Name	Languages	Years active	Major awards	Comments
Abhijeet	Hindi, Bengali	1985-present	1 Filmfare Award	Has also released few non-film albums
Afsal	Malayalam, Tamil	2002-present
Anwar	Hindi, Urdu	1979–present
A.P. Udayabhanu	Malayalam, Tamil	1958- ??
Bhupinder	Hindi	1964-2000		Also a guitarist
Bhal Singh	Haryanvi	1980-present	4 Awards including "Most Popular Haryanvi Singer" and "Voice of Haryana"	Also a writer, composer and musician
Babbu Mann	Hindi, Punjabi	1998-present
G. Venugopal	Malayalam	1986-present	3 Kerala State Awards, 2 Kerala Film Critics Award
Gurdas Maan	Punjabi, Hindi	1983-present		Also a songwriter, choreographer, and actor
Hariharan	Malayalam, Kannada,Tamil, Telugu, Hindi	1977-present	1 National Award	Notable ghazal singer
Harish Moyal	Hindi	2001-present		Indian Idol Finalist
Jagjit Singh	Hindi, Urdu	1981-present	Padma Bhushan	married to Chitra Singh
Jassie Gift	Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu	2004-present		Also a film music composer.
Jayachandran	Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu	1967-present	1 National Award, 4 Kerala State Awards, 1 Tamil Nadu State Award
Jolly Abraham	Tamil, Malayalam
Kailash Kher	Hindi, Urdu, Kannada	2003-present
Karthik	Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada	2002-present
Kishore Kumar	Hindi, Bengali and other languages	1946-1987	8 Filmfare Awards	Also worked as an actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter
K.J. Yesudas	All Indian Languages	1955-present	Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, 7 National Awards, 23 Kerala State Awards, 8 Tamil Nadu State Awards, 5 Andhra Pradesh State Awards, 5 Karnataka State Awards	Also an Indian classical music
Kozhikode Abdul Kader	Malayalam	1951-1973
K.P. Brahmanandan	Malayalam	1969-1984	All-India Radio Award
Krishan Kumar Menon (Kay Kay)	Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi	1996-present		Also a successful Indipop singer
K. L. Saigal	Hindi	1932-1947
Kumar Sanu	Hindi, Bengali, Kannada and other languages	1984-present	5 Filmfare Awards, 1 IIFA Award	Broke the Guinness world record for the most songs recorded in a single day (28)
Kunal Ganjawala	Hindi, Kannada	2002-present	1 Zee Cine Award
Lucky Ali	Hindi, Urdu	1999-present	1 Filmfare Award	Also a composer
M.G. Sreekumar	Malayalam, Tamil	1984-present	2 National Awards, 3 Kerala State Awards
Madhu Balakrishnan	Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil language and Kannada	1999-present	Kerala State Film Award
Mahendra Kapoor	Hindi	1956-1999	3 Filmfare Awards
Manna Dey	Hindi, Bengali	1951–1991	2 National Awards, Padma Bhushan
Mel Mahal	Hindi, Punjabi	2007-present
Mano	Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada	1987-present		Also worked as an actor and a music assistant
Mohammed Rafi	Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujrati, Marathi, Bengali, Orriya, Bhojpuri, Telegu, Sindhi, Assamese, Kannada	1944-1980	2 National Awards, 6 Filmfare Awards, Padma Shri
Mukesh	Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Assamiya	1940–1976	1 National Award, 4 Filmfare Awards
Nitin Mukesh	Hindi	1970–2000		son of Mukesh
Dr. P.B. Sreenivas	Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu	1953-present
Pradip Somasundaran	Malayalam, Telugu	1993-present	Meri Awaz Suno 1996, MTVA Award 1998	Also a lecturer
Dr. Rajkumar (ಡಾII ರಾಜ್‍ಕುಮಾರ್)	Kannada	1974-2004	1 National Award, Padma Bhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Karnataka Rathna (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ರತ್ನ) & Honorary Doctorate from Mysore University.	More popularly known as an Actor - Natasarvabhouma (ನಟಸಾರ್ವಭೌಮ)
Remo Fernandes	Konkani,Hindi, English
Shaan	Hindi, Kannada	1989-present	2 Filmfare Awards, 1 Zee Cine Award	Also a successful Indipop singer
Shabbir Kumar	Hindi	1982-present
Shailender Singh	Hindi	1975–1997
Sonu Niigaam	Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada and other languages	1990-present	1 National Award, 2 Filmfare Awards, 3 IIFA Awards, 4 Zee Cine Awards	Originally known as Sonu Nigam. Also an Indi-Pop singer, TV anchor and judge, actor, RJ and music composer for one of his albums.
Dr. S.P. Balasubrahmanyam	Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, All Indian Languages	1966-present	6 National Awards, 21 Andhra Pradesh Film Awards, 2 Tamil Nadu Film Awards, Kalaimamani Award, PadmaShri Award, Film Fare Award	Also a composer, Actor, Producer, Dubbing Artiste. Elder brother of S.P. Sailaja. Has recorded over 36,000 songs in a span of 35 years.
Sukhwinder Singh	Hindi, Punjabi	1986-present	1 Filmfare Award
Suresh Wadkar	Marathi, Hindi	1978-present
Talat Mahmood	Hindi, Urdu	1945-1986	Padma Bhushan	Also an actor
Udit Narayan	Hindi, Nepali, Telugu, Tamil, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Kannada and other languages	1981-present	3 National Awards, 5 Filmfare Awards
Unni Menon	Tamil, Malayalam	1981-present
Vijay Yesudas	Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi		1 Kerala State Award	Son of the singer K.J. Yesudas
Vineeth Sreenivasan	Malayalam	2003-present		Son of the Malayalam film actor Sreenivasan
Vinod Rathod	Hindi	1987-present