


Sonu has sung with clear pronunciations, in many languages besides Hindi, including Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Punjabi,Tamil, Telugu, English, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Nepali and Marathi. He is recognised for his versatile voice as well as excellent emotion range. His rendition of Kal Ho Na Ho has been highly popular. He has provided playback singing for a large number of Hindi movies and won many awards. Over the years, Sonu has become a major force in the Indian music industry. Since then, he has created a unique style of his own, and has become a role model for budding male singers in India. Sonu's image as a Rafi clone changed after his rendition of the Nadeem-Shravan composed song, "Yeh Dil Deewana" in Pardes (1997). Anu Malik was the music director of this movie. He rose to fame with the song, "Sandese Aate Hain", in Border (1997). Singing offers poured in thereafter, though slowly at first. The first episode of "Sa Re Ga Ma" was aired on May 1, 1995. Sonu started hosting "Sa Re Ga Ma," a television singing talent competition, which soon became one of the most popular shows on Indian television. He then sang the song, "Accha Sila Diya", for the album, "Bewafa Sanam" (1995), which gave him the recognition as an established playback singer. He got a break as a playback singer in Gulshan Kumar's movie, "Aaja Meri Jaan".

These albums contributed to his label for some time as a "Rafi clone." His first movie song as a playback singer was in the movie, "Janum" (1990), which was never officially released. His initial years in Mumbai proved to be a struggle, and he started by singing covers of Mohammad Rafi songs, mainly for the "Rafi Ki Yaadein" album series. He moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career at the age of 19.

In his teenage years, he participated in several music competitions successfully. Then on, he accompanied his father on his singing assignments at weddings and parties. Early years and playback singingSonu Nigam began his singing career at the age of three, when he joined his father on stage to sing Mohammad Rafi's "Kya Hua Tera Wada".
