Born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan Jagjit was raised as a Sikh. Although his late father wanted him to opt IAS as a career, Jagjit made him proud by the achievements in the world of music. He learnt music under Pandit Chaganlal Sharma for two years in Ganganagar, and later devoted six years to learning Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms of Indian Classical Music from Ustad Jamaal Khan of the Sainia Gharana school. The Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University and Kurukshetra University, Late Professor Suraj Bhan encouraged his interest in music. He arrived in Mumbai in 1965 in search of better opportunities. He lived as a paying guest and his earlier assignments were singing advertisement jingles.
During 1970s, the art of ghazal singing was dominated by well-established names like Noor Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood and Mehdi Hassan. However, Singh was able to make his mark and carve out a niche for himself. In 1976, his album The Unforgetables hit music stores. Essentially a ghazal album, its emphasis on melody and Jagjit’s fresh voice was a departure from the prevalent style of ghazal rendition, which was heavily based on classical and semi-classical Indian music. Skeptics had their own reservations; purists scorned it, but it was widely successful among listeners and the album set new sales records.
In 1967, Jagjit met Chitra, also a singer. After a two year courtship they got married in December 1969.[3] They epitomize the first successful husband-wife singing team. Successful releases of the duo include Ecstasies, A Sound Affair and Passions. While these albums were breezy, Beyond Time released in the opening years of 1990s was an experimentation with sounds. Around this time the duo was struck by grief, when their only son, Vivek (21), died in a road accident on 28 July 1990.
Singh also sang, as playback singer,  for various songs in Bollywood films including Arth, Saath Saath, and Premgeet. His compositions for the TV serial Mirza Ghalib remain extremely popular among ghazal aficionados.
On 10 May 2007, in a joint session held in the historic Central Hall of India’s Parliament (Sansad Bhawan), Jagjit Singh rendered the last Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s famous ghazal “Lagta nahin hai dil mera” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of India’s First War of Independence (1857). President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and dignitaries including former Prime Ministers, Members of Parliament, Foreign Ambassadors and High Commissioners were in attendance.
Singh had a history of heart ailments. In January 1998, he suffered a heart attack, which led him to quit smoking. In October 2007, he was hospitalised following blood circulation problems. On September 23, 2011 he was admitted in the hospital and was operated the same evening after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was since then kept in Intensive care unit (ICU). On the 10th of  October 2011, at the age of 70,  he golden voice fell silent.
Before this illness, his last major concert was held on 16 September 2011 in Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai. His last concert was held on 20 September 2011 in The Indian Public School, Dehradun.
 GK Feature Desk

Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
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