Well-versed in both Hindi and several Dravidian languages, Indian playback singer Sonu Kakkar (October 20, 1979) was born in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand into a musical household. She started singing jagrans, a traditional Northern Indian chant, at the age of 5 and relocated to Delhi with her family in 1990. Kakkar then moved to Mumbai, where she was discovered by Bollywood music director Sandeep Chowta after participating on Channel V’s reality music competition Indian Pop Star. Kakkar made her official Bollywood debut with “Babuji Zaara Dheere Chalo,” featured in Eeshwar Nivas’ 2003 film Dum. From there on, she became a mainstay in Bollywood soundtracks, lending her voice to the theme song of numerous films such as Naach (2004), Sheesha (2005), and Bombay to Goa (2007). Her big breakthrough arrived in 2014 with the Amit Trivedi-penned track “London Thumukda,” included in the soundtrack of Vikas Bahl’s Queen. That same year, she also dropped the single “Urban Munda,” written by her brother Tony Kakkar. Throughout the rest of the 2010s, Sonu Kakkar’s output remained as prolific as ever, with several contributions to Bollywood films and a handful of singles of her own, including 2019’s “Kyu Saath Tumhara Choota Hai” and 2021’s “Sun Baliye.”
