Jagjit Singh, born Jagmohan Singh Dhiman, popularly known as 'The Ghazal King' or 'King of Ghazals' was an Indian Ghazal singer, composer and musician. He sang in many languages and is credited with the revival and popularity of ghazal and bhajan, both of which are Indian classical art forms, by selecting poetry that was important to the masses and writing it in a way that puts more emphasis on the meaning of the words and the melody that they evoked. As far as Indian classical music is concerned, his style of composition and Gayaki (singing) is considered to be Bol-pradhan, one that emphasises words.
With a career spanning five decades and several albums, the variety and depth of Jagjit Singh's work has been seen as genre-defining. He started his professional career in 1961 as a singer and songwriter at All India Radio's (AIR) Jalandhar station. He appeared on stage and wrote music in his teenage years. In 1965, Singh first got a job as an advertising jingle singer and then went on to playback singing in Bombay. Singh's work in the film included playback singing for productions such as Arth, Saath Saath and Premgeet. He wrote all the songs for the latter, as well as for the Mirza Ghalib Television show. Jagjit Singh died in 2011. Singh's biography, Beyond Time, based on about 40 hours of interviews with him, was published in 2012. A biopic documentary by the name of Kaagaz Ki Kashti was made on the life journey of Jagjit Singh, who broke the norms and revolutionised the Ghazal scenario.
Padma Bhushan - Government of India - 2003
Ghalib Academy - Delhi Government - 2005
Rajasthan Ratna - Government of Rajasthan - 2012