Renowned ghazal singer Jagjit Singh passes away

Renowned Indian ghazal singer Jagjit Singh passed away on Monday at the age of 70 in the Intensive Care Unit of Mumbai Lilavati hospital in India due to brain hemorrhage.

The singer was admitted in ICU and underwent emergency neurosurgery twice. Jagjit Singh also had a history of heart ailments which were suspected to have trigger the damaged, reported a private news channel. Singh was breathing with the aid of a ventilator. The 70 -years old also suffered from hypertension.

He was born on 8 February, 1941 in Rajhistan. 'The Ghazal King' was a singer, composer, activist and entrepreneur. He had sung in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali.

Singh entered the music industry at a time which was primarily dominated by Pakistani ghazal singers, and Indian singers were considered relatively lesser authentic than their Pakistani counterparts.

He was the first Indian music director to use the technique of multi-track recording for his album 'Beyond Time'. Singh was admitted just hours before he was to perform with another ghazal maestro, Ghulam Ali, in Mumbai.

Unlike other ghazal singers, Singh did not hesitate in lending his voice for films. His silky voice ruled during early 80's in films like Prem Geet, Saath Saath and Arth. However, his major work is spread over more than 60 filmy and non-filmy albums.

His music became popular in mass media through films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Jagjit Singh is survived by his wife Chitra Singh, with whom he had produced several record-breaking albums. Their only son Vivek Singh had died in a road accident in 1990.

As per details, Jagjit Singh was an Indian ghazal singer, composer, music director, activist and entrepreneur. Popularly known as "The Ghazal King" he gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian Ghazal singer Chitra Singh, in the 1970s and 1980s, as the first ever successful duo act (husband-wife) in the history of recorded Indian music.

Together, they are considered to be the pioneers of modern ghazal singing and regarded as most successful recording artistes outside the realm of Indian film music. He has sung in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Sindhi and Nepali languages. He was awarded India's third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 2003.

Widely credited for the revival and popularity of Ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by simplifying the complex form of Ghazals in to a more simpler form of Ghazals by amalgamating Ghazal and Geet. His music became popular in mass media through films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991).
 
Jagjit Singh was considered to be the most popular ghazal singer and composer of all time, in terms of commercial success. With a career spanning over five decades and a repertoire comprising 80 albums the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining.

Jagjit Singh was the first Indian composer, and together with his wife Chitra Singh the first recording artist in the history of Indian music to use digital multi-track recording for their (India's first digitally recorded) album, Beyond Time (1987). He is regarded as one of India's most influential artistes.

Together with sitar legend Ravi Shankar and other leading figures of Indian classical music and literature, Singh had voiced his concerns over politicisation of arts and culture in India and lack of support experienced by the practitioners of India's traditional art forms, particularly folk artists and musicians.

Source: Internet