Alka Yagnik is an Indian playback singer associated primarily with Hindi cinema. Active since the early 1980s, she became one of the most prolific female voices in Bollywood through the late 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, recording songs across romantic, classical, devotional, and dance genres for a wide range of music directors.
| Name | Alka Yagnik |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 March 1966, Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Playback singer |
| Languages of work | Hindi, Bengali, and several other Indian languages |
| Years active | Since the early 1980s |
| Notable awards | Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer (multiple times), National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer |
Alka Yagnik was born into a Gujarati family in Calcutta. Her mother, Shubha Yagnik, was a classical singer, and Alka received early training in Indian classical music. She began performing on All India Radio, Calcutta, as a child artiste, which led to early opportunities in the Hindi film industry in Mumbai.
Yagnik's first recorded film song came in the early 1980s, with an early credit in Payal Ki Jhankaar (1980) under composer Raj Kamal. Her breakthrough is widely associated with the song "Mere Angne Mein" from Laawaris (1981), composed by Kalyanji–Anandji.
She gained wider prominence with "Ek Do Teen" from Tezaab (1988), composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. Through the 1990s she became one of the most-recorded female voices in Hindi cinema, working with composers including Anand–Milind, Nadeem–Shravan, Jatin–Lalit, Anu Malik, A. R. Rahman, and Rajesh Roshan.
She continued to record extensively in the 2000s for films such as Taal (1999), Dhadkan (2000), Lagaan (2001), and Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002), among others. Her work has frequently featured in soundtracks alongside contemporaries Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhana Sargam, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Shreya Ghoshal.
Yagnik's voice is associated with melodic, romantic compositions and is noted for its high-pitched clarity. Her career spans the transition in Hindi film music from analogue studio recording to digital production, and from the cassette era to the streaming era. She is among a small group of female playback singers whose work defined the sound of Bollywood music in the 1990s.
Alka Yagnik is married to Neeraj Kapur, a Shillong-based businessman. The couple have a daughter, Sayesha.