Chitra Singh is a famous ghazal singer. She sings ghazals in Urdu and Hindi. Her husband name is Jagjit Singh, he is also a famous ghazal singer. When they perform together, it always gets appreciated by listeners because they form a highly popular duet team. They are known as pioneers in the modern era of ghazal singing.

 

Chitra was born in a Bengali family and her surname was Dutta so earlier she was known as Chitra Dutta. There were strong roots of music in her family but she did not get any formal musical training. She used to listen to her mother’s music teacher and learnt music. She had two marriages in her life. First she was married to someone else and had a daughter from her previous marriage and after marrying to Jagjit Singh she gave birth to a son.

 

In 1960, Chitra met Jagjit Singh in Mumbai. Their musical career started together. They sang jingles for different advertisements. They launched an album ‘The Unforgettables’ which gave start to their career. Earlier ghazals were only performed before small audiences which were being attended by high society’s people. But they brought revolutions in the field of ghazal singing. They started performing together infront of large number of audience and listeners used to enjoy their singing. They experimented with tunes for Ghazals and created Indian and Western tunes so that they can pull the audience of young generation.

 

Both of them Chitra Singh and Jagjit Singh has composed and sang songs for the albums made in languages such as Bengali, Hindi and Punjabi. They have also launched religious albums such as Chirag, Hey Ram, Krishna and Shabads, out of these religious albums Krishna album is in the largest selling category.

 

Their old songs are still sung in Bangladesh and they are still favourites there. Their great Bengali songs are ‘Bujhini To Ami’ (I didn’t understand), ‘Duti Mon Ar Nei Dujonar’ (Two hearts are one), ‘Ki Dile Amai Tumi"’ (What have you given me"), Amar Chokher Joler Majhe" (In my tears).

 

Her son Vivek died in a car accident in Mumbai. After his death she stopped singing and went away from the limelight. It is being heard that she has been learning about different types of spirituality and also practices healing therapies related with spirituality.

 

Chitra Singh has sung many songs and they are wonderful but her few unforgettable songs are "Tum Aao To Sahi", "Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar", "Woh Nahin Milta Mujhe", "Mitti Da Bawa", "Saare Badan Ka Khoon".

 

Her voice was perfect for ghazal singing. She used to sing from her soul. ‘Lab-e-Khamosh Se’ (Beyond Time) is her one of the beautiful album. Jagjit Singh has a deep and smooth voice and on the other side Chitra Singh’s voice is touching and clear and when she used to sing in high pitched voice it used to blend perfectly with his voice. Their duets are magnificent; it used to create a miraculous effect in songs such as "Aaye Hain Samjhane Log", "Uski Hasrat Hai Jise Dile Se Mita Bhi Na Sakoon" and "Ishq Mein Ghairat-e-jazbaat Ne".

 

In the gamut of ghazal singing her voice had an exceptional dimension. Chitra Singh’s voice is unparalleled in the field of ‘darbari mehfil’ she has sung amazing ghazals such as ‘Dil-e-Nadaan Tujhe’, ‘Har Ek Baat Pe Kehteh Ho’ and ‘Dil He To Hai’.