Kanika Kapoor is an Indian singer. She was born and raised in Lucknow. In 2012, she relocated to Mumbai to become a singer. Kapoor's first song "Jugni Ji" (2012) was for a music video–which became a commercial success. In 2014, she began her Bollywood playback singing career with the song "Baby Doll" for the film Ragini MMS 2. Upon its release, the song topped the music charts and Kapoor received wide critical acclaim and several accolades for her singing style, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer.Kapoor subsequently earned widespread recognition and success for singing one of the Hindi cinema's top charted songs, including "Lovely" and "Kamlee" for the film Happy New Year (2014), "Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan" for the film Roy (2015), "Desi Look" for the film Ek Paheli Leela (2015), "Nachan Farrate" for the film All Is Well (2015), "Jugni Peeke Tight Hai" for the film Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon (2015), "Jab Chaye Tera Jadoo" for the film Main Aur Charles (2015), "Neendein Khul Jaati Hain" for the film Hate Story 3 (2015), "Premika" for the film Dilwale (2015), the later of these rank among the highest-grossing Bollywood film. The song "Da Da Dasse" from the film Udta Punjab (2016), earned her several Best Playback Singer awards and nominations—following which she sang the songs, "Hug Me" from Beiimaan Love (2016), "Luv Letter" from the film The Legend of Michael Mishra (2016), "Beat Pe Booty" from the film A Flying Jatt (2016) and "Shake Karaan" from the film Munna Michael (2017), all of which earned her further success.In March 2020 after returning from London, she attended a number of parties with Indian politicians and VIPs at Hotel Taj, Lucknow, despite India's Ministry of Health's home quarantine advisory against Coronavirus at the time. Subsequently, she tested positive for COVID-19. A complaint was lodged against her for her negligence.

Early life

Kanika Kapoor was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, into a Khatri family within the Dhai Ghar family-group, to parents: Rajeev Kapoor, a businessman, and Poonam Kapoor, a boutique owner. where she also studied music. At the age of 12, Kapoor started to study classical music under musician Pandit Ganesh Prasad Mishra from Varanasi and was accompanied by him to classical concerts around India. Kapoor participated in many music competitions at school in her childhood. At the age of 15, she did a stint with All India Radio and also accompanied bhajan singer Anup Jalota in his shows. She did her B.A. and then Masters in music from Bhatkhande Music Institute in Lucknow. She then moved to Mumbai to pursue her music career.

Personal life

Kanika Kapoor married Raj Chandok, an NRI businessman, in 1998 and moved to London with her husband, with whom she has three children, two daughters Aayana & Samara and a son Yuvraaj. She separated from her husband in 2012 and moved back to her parents home in Lucknow. The couple divorced in 2012.According to Kapoor, despite being an ethnic-Punjabi and despite singing various Bollywood songs with Punjabi lyrics, she cannot speak the Punjabi language and thus considers herself a "UP Khatri".On 20th May 2022, she married NRI businessman Gautam Hathiramani after dating him for a few years.

Career

By the success of "Jugni Ji", Meet Bros Anjjan asked Kapoor to sing the song "Baby Doll" for the film ''Ragini MMS 2'' (2014), which marked her Bollywood singing debut. The song created hype over its release and topped the charts with winning Mirchi Music Awards for the "Number One Song of the Year" award. Kapoor was critically praised for her singing style and went on to win several awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. The same year she collaborated again with Dr. Zeus along with Vishal–Shekhar for the song "Lovely" in ''Happy New Year'' which was picturised on Deepika Padukone. The soundtrack of the album also includes a Punjabi remix of the song titled "Kamlee". Both the songs "Lovely" and "Kamlee" received generally positive reviews and were proved to be a major success. Apart from concerts and tours, she has also been signed by an NGO for children, as their brand ambassador, where she promoted the cause of children's education. She also relaunched her own fashion brand "Kanika Kapoor: House of Chikankari" to help the female artisans in Lucknow and develop this art of embroidery and textile decoration.In the year 2015, she collaborated again with Meet Bros Anjjan for the song "Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan" in ''Roy'', which became a huge critical and commercial success and was the playback singer for Sunny Leone in the song "Desi Look" in the movie ''Ek Paheli Leela''. She also relaunched her own fashion brand "Kanika Kapoor: House of Chikankari" to help the female artisans in Lucknow and develop this art of embroidery and textile decoration.In the year 2015, she collaborated again with Meet Bros Anjjan for the song "Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan" in ''Roy'', which became a huge critical and commercial success and was the playback singer for Sunny Leone in the song "Desi Look" in the movie ''Ek Paheli Leela''. The song was her last collaboration with Zeus and parted ways with him due to his false claim of being the producer and composer of the song "Baby Doll". She collaborated third time with Meet Bros Anjjan for the song "Nachan Farrate" for the movie ''All Is Well''. She sang "Neendein Khul Jaati Hain" for the film ''Hate Story 3'', collaborating fourth time with Meet Bros. She also sang a welcome song titled "Hello Namstey" for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he attended a gathering at Wembley Stadium, London on 13 November 2015.She regularly arranges and takes part in live shows and concerts. In 2016, she paired up with various composers including Amit Trivedi, Raghav Sachar. In an interview, she said that she will now concentrate more on Sufi and classical tracks. She will also release her songs as singles.In 2016, she was made brand ambassador of Swiss Watch manufacturer 88 Rue du Rhone, an independent brand by Raymond Weil. In 2019, Kapoor was one of the judges of singing reality show ''The Voice'' (season 3).In September 2023, Kanika won the Special Award for Contribution to Music at the Asian Achievers Awards in London. The Awards are run by global advisory firm EPG.