Padma Awards Announced: Singer Sonu Nigam to be conferred with prestigious Padma Shri Award

Bollywood’s popular playback singer Sonu Nigam will be honoured with Padma Shri. The Home Ministry announced the Padma Awards on the eve of 73rd Republic Day. Olympians Neeraj Chopra, Pramod Bhagat and Vandana Kataria, will also be awarded the Padma Shri. Last year, Hindustani classical singer Pandit Chhannulal Mishra and Singer Adnan Sami received India’s fourth-highest civilian award.

Born on July 30, 1973, Sonu Nigam is not just a brilliant singer but also a noted music director. Sonu is recognised as one of the best playback singers who sings predominantly in Hindi and Kannada language films. But he has also sung in Odia, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri and other Indian languages. With over 5000 released songs till date, he is known as the “Modern Rafi” after his musical idol Mohammad Rafi. He is also regarded as “The Lord Of Chords” and “The master of melody”.

Padma Awards, one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. This year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, SII MD Cyrus Poonawalla have been conferred with Padma Bhushan. While the first Chief of Defence Staff late General Bipin Rawat and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh have been awarded the Padma Vibhushan.