Alka Yagnik

Alka Yagnik (born March 20 in Calcutta, Bengal, India) is an Indian singer. She is born into a Gujarati family. Both her parents were well versed in classical music.

She is classically trained, and has been one of the leading playback singers in Bollywood since the late 1980's. Alka began singing bhajans for Calcutta Radio at the age of six. She thought singing as a hobby but later thought about it as a profession. She came to Mumbai and sang for the film Laawaris (1981) with the song Mere Angene Mein. She got her big break with the song Ek Do Teen from the film Tezaab (1988). The song turned her into a star overnight and went on to become a pop hit. She also received her first Filmfare Best Female Playback Award for the song.

Her voice has mostly been used for the younger generation of stars. She has done the playback singing for some of the biggest stars in the industry. Alka also sings for other languages like Marathi, Bengali and Punjabi.