Artist Bio: Alisha Chinai

Birth Name: Sujata Chinai
Date of Birth: 18 March, 1972
Place of Birth: Delhi, India
Spouse: Rajesh Jhaweri (divorced)
Profession: Singer
Genre’s: Indipop

Alisha Chenoy, born in a Gujarati family, was named Sujata by her parents. But she changed her name to Alisha, after her cousin sister’s daughter’s name. Alisha is known as Indian Madonna and is always credited to bring the pop music to India. Alisha Chenoy made her debut in the Bollywood music industry with her album titled as ‘Jadoo.’ She also launched another album titled ‘Baby doll’ but even it could not do a good business and failed to display her actual singing potential and talent. The famous music director, composer and singer, Bappi Lehari supported her in getting established as a Bollywood play back singer. She voiced for many disco numbers composed by him in the 80’s for a number of movies like ‘Love Love Love’, ‘Guru’, ‘Commando’, ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Dance Dance’. Next big leap Alisha took in her career was in the year 1990 when she teamed up with some big names like Nadeem Shravan and Anu Malik to get several grand breaks so that she could grow further. After teaming up, she sang many super hit tracks like ‘Tere Ishq me nachenge’ (Raja Hindustani), ‘Roundhe’ (pyaar tune kya kiya) and ‘Log bole’ (khuddar). The year 1996 proved to be a watershed year for her career when her music album ‘Made in India’ became a break through hit of the year. But her succeeding albums were unsuccessful and she made a disappointing exit from the industry in a very short span of time. Alisha previously voiced for many Bollywood movies that had a star cast of most demanded and famous heroines of that era namely, Juhi Chawal, Madhuri Dixit, Divya Bhari and Sridevi. Later, Anu Malik approached her to sing for the film being produced under the Yash Raj Banner productions named ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’ and the track ‘Oh my Darling’ was again a super hit. Alisha’s unique and sensual singing has topped the play lists with the numbers ‘Aaj Ki Raat’, ‘Touch Me’, ‘Lover boy’ and ‘It’s rocking’. Alisha got married to her manager Rajesh but got separated after only a short while. She also judged a famous singing reality show ‘Indian Idol 3’ on Sony, where she was having Javed Akhtar and Anu Malik as the co- judges. Alisha has received the Best Female Playback singer award for the track ‘Kajra Re’ (Bunty aur Babli) in the year 2005. She has also been honoured for the Artistic Excellence by Freddie Mercury award. In addition to these achievements, Alisha also won first position at the ‘International Song Festival 2004.’