Alka Yagnik

She was born in Calcutta in 1966 to a Gujarati family; her mother Shubha was a classical singer. She sang bhajans on All India Radio Calcutta at six and was brought to Bombay by her mother at ten to meet composers; Raj Kapoor sent her to Laxmikant, who advised waiting. Her first songs came around 1980 (Payal Ki Jhankaar, Laawaris), and Mere Angne Mein in Laawaris, for Kalyanji-Anandji, was an early hit.

Ek Do Teen, for Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Madhuri Dixit in Tezaab (1988), won her first Filmfare Award and set the pattern of the next fifteen years: Choli Ke Peeche (Khal Nayak), Ghoonghat Ki Aad Se (Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke), Pardesi Pardesi (Raja Hindustani), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Taal Se Taal Mila, Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se (Dhadkan), O Re Chhori (Lagaan), Hum Tum, Agar Tum Saath Ho (Tamasha, 2015). Her duets with Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan are the core of the 1990s' romantic song, and A.R. Rahman and Anu Malik gave her much of their best work.

She has two National Awards (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Lagaan) and seven Filmfare Awards, and married Neeraj Kapoor, a Shillong businessman, in 1989. In June 2024 she announced that a viral infection had left her with sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

Alka Yagnik's voice is sweet, high and girlish, in the Lata tradition but softer and more pliant, with a natural pathos that composers used for the heroine's longing and a lightness that carried the dance number without strain. She is unusually consistent — the same tuning, the same clarity across thousands of songs — and that reliability is why she was first on every list for twenty years.