Alka Yagnik

Alka Yagnik biography

Alka Yagnik (Hindi: अलका याज्ञिक or अलका याज्ञनिक) (born March 20, 1966 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India) is an Indian singer who is ranked among the best-known Hindi playback singers of all time. She is a seven-time winner of the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award and has done playback singing for over 700 Indian films. She is born into a Gujarati family. Both her parents were well versed in classical music. She is classically trained, and has been one of the leading playback singers in Bollywood since the late 1980's. Alka began singing bhajans for Calcutta Radio at the age of six. She thought singing as a hobby but later thought about it as a profession. Her first song was for the film Payal Ki Jhankaar in (1979), followed by Laawaris (1981) with the hit song "Mere Angene Mein", followed by the film Hamari Bahu Alka (1982). She got her big break with the song Ek Do Teen from the film Tezaab (1988). The song turned her into a star overnight and went on to become a pop hit. She also received her first Filmfare Best Female Playback Award for the song. Her voice has mostly been used for the younger generation of stars. She has done the playback singing for some of the biggest stars in the industry. Alka also sings four other languages like Marathi, Bengali and Punjabi.