SEPANG: Indian playback singer Sonu Nigam is a master of singing in many languages and he readily shares with his fans how he picked up this special talent.
“As a music lover, I listened to Indian music in various languages over the years. And to understand the songs which I love, I translated them into my native language Hindi,” said Nigam, 42, at the Marriott Resort Hotel Putrajaya yesterday.
Nigam has recorded romantic, rock and patriotic songs in Hindi, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, English, Urdu, Nepali, Malayalam and Marathi.
The Haryana-born superstar’s songs have been featured mainly in Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi and Marathi movies.
Nigam counts the title song for the 2003 Bollywood movie, Kal Ho Naa Ho, as his all-time favourite song.
The comedy-drama also stars his all-time favourite actor Datuk Shah Rukh Khan.
“Shah Rukh is a wonderful person who is humble, friendly and loves my music. He’s done a lot of charitable work for the less fortunate around the world, too, and I believe that’s what any successful singer or actor should be doing,” said Nigam.
Nigam began his singing career at the age of four, when he joined his father on stage to sing at weddings and parties.
He moved to Mumbai with his father to begin his Bollywood singing career at the age of 18.
Since then, Nigam has performed in numerous countries around the world.
Nigam and Pakistani playback singer Atif Aslam are in Malaysia to entertain fans in the concert Shaam-e-Dostana at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre tonight (Jan 22) at 7pm.
Although Nigam has performed in Malaysia four times since 1995 while Aslam has performed five times since 2005, the concert will be the first time both are sharing the stage together here.
Aslam, 32, confessed that it was always fun to sing in Malaysia as Malaysians are “very musical and in love with South Asian music.”
“Our Malaysian fans are very sporting and readily sing and dance along with us at concerts,” said Aslam.
Nigam added: “We also love Malaysia for its cultural diversity, greenery and polite, courteous and warm people.”
Aslam, who has recorded numerous chart-topping songs in Pakistan, is known for his vocal-belting techniques.
The artiste, who hails from Wazirabad, released his debut album, Jal Pari, in 2004.
Aslam has performed with rock guitarist Slash in Times Square, New York and with singer Jay Sean at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
“I’d love to record songs with talented Malaysian musicians someday,” said Aslam.