Greatest Bollywood Playback Singers
Best Bollywood Playback Singers
The Hindi film industry which is known as Bollywood has a vast repertoire of playback singers. This article brings to light an epic list of the best Bollywood playback singers.
A playback singer is a singer who records his/her songs for movie soundtracks. Music directors pre-record songs of playback singers and use them in movies. Actors and actresses lip-sync the songs recorded by playback singers in movies. Since its early days the Hindi film industry is known for versatile playback singers. Movie fans enjoy listening to songs in the movies; however, not many fans actually realize it takes a creative effort on part of the music directors and playback singers to bring a song to life. Bollywood playback singers have to mould and modulate their voice in accordance with various factors related to the movie.
Music directors work with different playback singers, and every music director is aware of a playback singers strengths and weaknesses.
A playback singer has to adhere to the requirements of the music director in accordance with the composition of the song. Voice intonation is very important for playback singers. When playback singers are recording in a recording studio, they need to adjust the distance from the recording mike in accordance with the various vocal elements in the song. Playback singers need to grasp and understand nuances quickly to ensure their voice blends aesthetically with the lyrical and musical composition. A versatile playback singer is one that is fluent with different styles of singing. Bollywood playback singers have mesmerized global audience with their soul stirring voices. A good playback singer constantly learns while recording vocal parts at a recording studio. Talented playback singers have a wide repertoire of vocal styles and techniques. A number of Bollywood singers have a strong classical background and their strong classical influence comes forth strongly in song compositions.
Playback singers need to develop a good rapport with music directors. Ideally, a good playback singer should be one that lends his voice in accordance with the music directors needs. When music directors establish a good musical understanding with a playback singer, extracting the best out of that singer in accordance with the composition becomes easy. Over the years many Bollywood playback singers have recorded their own music albums, some of which have become a huge success with music fans in India. Solo albums of playback singers sound different from their songs in movies, that’s because the lyrical composition and musical composition in the album are entirely the creative effort of the singer. In playback singing the singer only lends his vocal parts to the song which is composed by a team, mainly music directors and lyricists.
Bollywood playback singers have to adapt and learn every time they record in a recording studio. Music directors may record a playback singer’s vocal parts in one take, or opt for different vocal takes and select the best of the lot. While the number of playback singers in the past was few, in recent years the number of playback singers has gone up significantly. In present times there is a huge demand for singers with unique voices. Music directors are constantly on the lookout for fresh new voices that add vibrant character to musical compositions. Furthermore, the movie genres in present Bollywood demand a wide repertoire of vocal parts in songs… which has lead to new breed of playback singers with a strong western influence. Bollywood has had a legacy of playback singers, and the light is getting brighter. In the future we will witness an ever-changing breed of playback singers entertaining audiences in India and the world over.
The space below showcases an epic list of Bollywood playback singers…past and present.
Greatest Bollywood Playback Singers
- Lata Mangeshkar
- Mohammed Rafi
- Kishore Kumar
- Shamshad Begum
- Asha Bhosle
- Mukesh
- Kumar Sanu
- Sonu Nigam
- Talat Mahmood
- KK
- Manna Dey
- Udit Narayan
- Kavita Krishnamurthy
- Shreya Ghoshal
- Alka Yagnik
- S.P. Balasubramaiam
- Sukhwinder Singh
- Sunidhi Chauhan
- Anuradha Paudwal
- Shankar Mahadevan
- Sadhna Sargam
- Hemant Kumar
- Sujatha Mohan
- Mahendra Kapoor
- Suraiya
- K.S. Chitra
- Shaan
- Mohit Chauhan
- Geeta Dutt
- Anwar Hussain
- Babul Supriyo
- Mahalakshmi Iyer
- Shweta Subram
- Abhijeet Bhattacharya
- Zubeen Garg
- Hariharan
- Anuradha Sriram
- Kailash Kher
- Hemlata
- Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
- Arijit Singh
- Naresh Iyer
- Jaspinder Narula
- Bhupinder Singh
- Javed Ali
- G.M. Durrani
- Mika Singh
- Hema Sardesai
- Shailendra Singh
- Atif Aslam
- Benny Dayal
- Kunal Ganjawala
- Master Saleem
- Rekha Bhardwaj
- Himesh Reshammiya
- Karthik
- Mohammed Aziz
- Preeti Sagar
- Ankit Tiwari
- Madhushree
- Clinton Cerejo
- K.L. Saigal
- Zohrabai Ambalewali
- Richa Sharma
- Vinod Rathod
- Shabbir Kumar
- Bela Shende
- Roop Kumar Rathod
- Suraj Jagan
- Krishna Beura
- Shilpa Rao
- Kavita Seth
- Monali Thakur
- Sushma Shrestha
- Suresh Wadkar
- Palak Muchhal
- Kanika Kapoor
- Shewta Pandit
- Tanvi Shah
- Vaishali Samant
- Armaan Malik
- Harshdeep Kaur
- Chandrani Mukherjee
- Tochi Raina
- Shabab Sabri
- Alisha Chinai
- Usha Uthup
- Suman Kalyanpur
- Vasundhara Das
- Akriti Kakar
- Shail Hada
- Mamta Sharma
- Pamela Jain
- Anusha Mani
- Caralisa Monteiro
- Rahul Vaidya
- Shalmali Kholgade
- Neha Kakkar
- Shraddha Pandit
- Raman Mahadevan
- Sapna Mukherjee
- Aditi Singh Sharma
- Nitin Mukesh
- Tulsi Kumar
- Shipra Goyal
- Raja Hasan
- Alyssa Mendonsa
- Neeraj Shridhar
- Antara Mitra