Alisha Chinai

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Alisha Chinai (b. 18 March 1972) is an Indian popular singer. She is one of the pioneers of pop music in India.

1 Background
2 Career
3 Awards
4 Partial Discography
5 Memorable Hits
6 External link

[edit] Background

Her real name is Sujata, though she has gone by Alisha Chinai (Shortened to Alisha), or Aleesha Chinoy professionally. A little known fact is that Sujata changed her name to that of her cousin's daughter Alisha (also Chinai) after she was born. Alisha Chinai (her cousin's daughter) is now a renowned fashion accessory designer in India with her label Bea Accessories. She is also known as the "Indian Madonna" (she was first known as Babydoll but an image change later resulted in the "Madonna" moniker).

[edit] Career

Chinai was discovered by the famous music director and composer Bappi Lahiri. They have done many disco hits together in many films in the 80`s including Dance Dance, Commando, Guru, Love Love Love and more. She started her career with him singing for almost every famous actress, such as Smita Patil, Mandakini, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla etc. In the 90`s she turned around for other films and music directors, such as Anu Malik and Nadeem-Shravan.

Later, simultaneously of playback singing, she has recorded many hits as a pop singer, with Album releases. Chinai was most famous for her 1996 single and album, titled "Made in India" which contains her most famous track "Lover Girl." Throughout her successful years, she had a number of hits in the Indian Films, including Roundhe (Pyar Tune Kya Kiya), Sona Sona Roop Hai (Bollywood/Hollywood), and the controversial Sexy turned Baby Mujhe Log Bole (Khuddar). However, her pop music career ended as her follow-up albums were less successful.

After a not so good career in pop music, Alisha decided to go back to filmi music. Her comeback song was "Oh My Darling" in the Yash Raj Film flop Mujhse Dosti Karoge. The movie did not do well and the song ended up being the worst song on the soundtrack. Her career resurrected on "Chot Dil Pe Lagi" (Ishq Vishk), where she teamed up with Anu Malik after stating she would never work with him again in 1995. More hits followed and Alisha came to have success again. The highlight of her career came with the song Kajra Re (Bunty Aur Babli). The song was a hit and Alisha's success grew as she won the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award.

[edit] Awards

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Alisha received the prestigious International Billboard Award around the time "Made in India" came out, and also won the Freddie Mercury Award for Artistic Excellence.
Internationally, Alisha received attention when her song "Seulement Vous" won first place at the International Song Festival "Asia 2004". It was the first victory for India in the Song Contest.