About
Anup Jalota, born 29 July 1953 in Nainital, is one of India's most celebrated devotional and ghazal singers, popularly known as the Bhajan Samrat, the Emperor of Bhajans. He belongs to the Sham Chaurasia gharana, trained at Lucknow's Bhatkhande Music Institute, and is the son of the bhajan singer Purushottam Das Jalota. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2012 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2020.
Over a career of more than five decades and thousands of concerts across five continents, Jalota made bhajans such as Aisi Lagi Lagan, Rang De Chunariya and Chadariya Jhini Re Jhini part of the popular devotional canon, while also building a substantial ghazal repertoire. He continues to tour internationally and record prolifically, and leads Mission 500, an initiative to launch a new generation of devotional singers.
The artistry
Jalota sings the bhajan with a warm, accessible voice and clear devotional feeling, usually backed by santoor, sarangi, tabla and other classical instruments, and brings the same lyricism to his ghazal repertoire.
Jalota is a marquee name for any devotional or bhajan-and-ghazal programme, with unmatched reach among diaspora and festival audiences. A host can programme a bhajan sandhya, a ghazal evening, or a themed devotional concert around him. [Atlas Assessment]
The pre-eminent popular voice of the Hindi bhajan, who carried Indian devotional music to a global audience while keeping a foot in the ghazal tradition.