Sukhwinder Singh (born 18 July 1971) is an Indian Bollywood playback singer. Singh is famous for singing "Chaiyya Chaiyya" for which he won the Best Male Playback Award at the 1999 Filmfare Awards. The song, from Mani Ratnam's 1998 film
Dil Se.., was composed by A. R. Rahman, written by Gulzar, and sung in duet with Sapna Awasthi. It was also featured in the musical
Bombay Dreams and, in remixed arrangements, in the titles and credits segments of Spike Lee's 2006 film,
Inside Man. Singh later gained more international fame for singing "Jai Ho" from the film
Slumdog Millionaire, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Singh got his break in the movie
Karma, in which he sang a few lines; then he sang hit song "Aa ja Sanam" in film
Khilaaf. But he wanted to finetune and enhance himself as a singer/performer, so he took a sabbatical and left Mumbai to tour England and America to see, hear and understand various forms of music. After this broadening of his musical horizons, he returned to Mumbai to kick-start his musical career.
His first effort in Hindi films,
Aaja Sanam, went largely unnoticed, even though the music carried the names of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Then for
Dil Se... A. R. Rahman used Sukhwinder for "Chaiyya Chaiyya" & rest is history. The other films that followed – including
Taal,
Biwi No. 1,
1947 Earth,
Daag,
Jaanwar,
Dillagi,
Moksha,
Thakshak,
Tere Naam,
Apna Sapna Money Money,
Shadi Se Pehle,
Shabd,
Chak de! India,
Om Shanti Om and
Black and White- that have made him a household name.
He has been well received for providing playback singing for Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan in a total of 7 songs. Of these, "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from
Dil Se.., "Dard-E-Disco" from
Om Shanti Om, "Chak De India" from
Chak De! India, "Haule Haule" from
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, "Marjaani" from
Billu and "satak le" from
Happy New Year have become certified hits.
Singh has provided playback for many notable Bollywood heroes including Salman Khan, Sharukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Tusshar Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Sanjay Dutt, Ranbir Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Farhan Akhtar and Sunny Deol.