Eminent ghazal singer Jagjit Singh passed away at around 8.10 am at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai on Monday. He was admitted to the hospital on September 18 after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He was 70 and is survived by wife Chitra Singh. His funeral will take place on Tuesday at the Chandanwadi crematorium in Mumbai at around 3 pm.
Jagjit Singh was born into the family of Amar Singh and Bachan Kaur in Rajasthan on February 8, 1941. He took to music at an early age and trained himself in various styles of Hindustani classical music. He is best remembered for numbers like Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho, Hoshwalon Ko Khabar, Hontho Se Choolon Tum and many other hits.
He suffered a personal tragedy when he lost his son Vivek in an accident in the early 1990s. He also had a stepdaughter, from Chitra’s earlier marriage, who committed suicide on May 29, 2009. His health problems continued to persist since 1998, when he suffered a heart attack, and was admitted to the hospital in 2007 after a blood circulation problem.
Condolences poured in from all sections of society. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an ardent admirer of Singh’s music, was deeply saddened. “He was blessed with a golden voice. By making ghazals accessible to everyone, he gave joy and pleasure to millions of music lovers in India and abroad,” he said. BJP patriarch L.K. Advani described him as an extraordinary artiste. “It’s a huge loss to the world of art,” he said.
Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Roop Kumar Rathod, Sanjay Khan and Raza Murad visited Jagjit Singh’s family at the hospital.