Harshdeep Kaur (born 16 December 1986) is an Indian playback singer known for her Bollywood Hindi, Punjabi, English and Sufi songs. She is popularly known as "Sufi Ki Sultana" because of her soulful Sufi renditions. After winning titles in two reality shows, Kaur established herself as a lead singer in Bollywood soundtracks. Kaur was sixteen years old when she released her first Bollywood song, "Sajna Mai Haari".Kaur has recorded songs for film music in multiple Indian languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil and Urdu, and has established herself as a leading playback singer of Indian cinema. She has worked with leading music directors (including A R Rahman, Pritam Chakraborty, Vishal–Shekhar, Salim–Sulaiman, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Amit Trivedi, Shantanu Moitra, Tanishk Bagchi, Himesh Reshammiya, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sohail Sen. She's one of the very few Indian singers to have sung for a Hollywood film. Her track R.I.P., composed by AR Rahman, was a part of Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle's film 127 Hours. She has also sung a few songs for the Pakistani film and television industry.Some of her popular songs include Katiya Karun from Rockstar; Dilbaro from Raazi; Heer from Jab Tak Hai Jaan; Ik Onkar from Rang De Basanti; Zaalima from Raees; Nachde Ne Saare from Baar Baar Dekho; Bari Barsi from Band Baaja Baaraat; Kabira from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani; Jugni ji from Cocktail; and Twist Kamariya from Bareilly ki Barfi.In 2019, Kaur received the IIFA Award for Best Female Playback Singer award at the 20th IIFA Awards for the song "Dilbaro" from the film Raazi. She also won the Star Screen Award, Zee Cine Award for the same song Dilbaro.

Early life

Kaur was born on 16 December 1986 to Savinder Singh Sohal in Delhi. She is from a musical background. Her father, Savinder Singh Sohal, owns a factory of musical instruments. She attended Springdales School in New Delhi. Apart from studying, she started learning music at the age of six. She learned Indian classical music from Mr. Tejpal Singh, popularly known as the Singh Brothers, and Western classical music from George Pullinkala, Delhi Music Theatre. Later, at the age of twelve, to explore the world of music, she joined the Delhi School of Music to learn piano.

Career

Kaur won the singing competition '' MTV’s Video Ga Ga'' in 2003. In 2008 she won ''Junoon – Kuch Kar Dikhaane Ka''. She competed from the Sufi Ki Sultan genre with Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as her mentor.She sang the title song of TV series ''Bani – Ishq Da Kalma'' in 2013. Kaur is the only singer who has appeared on all four seasons of Coke Studio (India) from 2011 to 2015.Harshdeep Kaur became a "Coach" on StarPlus singing reality show ''The Voice India. She was joined by Adnan Sami, Kanika Kapoor and Armaan Malik as the other coaches and by "Super Guru" A. R. Rahman.

Personal life

Kaur married her childhood friend Mankeet Singh in a traditional Sikh wedding ceremony on 20 March 2015 in Mumbai. The couple's first child, Hunar Singh was born on 2 March 2021.