Shaan's Biography

Shaan (born Shantanu Mukherjee, pronounced: Shantonu Mukharji, on 30 September 1972), is an Indian playback singer more active in Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Kannada films and a television host. He hosted the shows Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, Star Voice of India and STAR Voice of India 2. In Music Ka Maha Muqabla, his team, Shaan's Strikers, finished as the runners up to Shankar Mahadevan’s team. He has also sung many Pakistani songs. He is considered as the most popular voice for romantic as well as melodious songs and is one of the most versatile singers. He has sung songs of different genres like pop, hip-hop, rock, and many more. He is one of the frontline playback singers of the millennium.

Early life and background

Shaan was born into a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family on 30 September 1972 in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. His grandfather was the lyricist Jahar Mukherjee, his father was the late music director Manas Mukherjee, and his sister is the singer Sagarika.^[1] His father died when Shaan was 13, after which his mother found work as a singer and took care of the whole family. He is married to Radhika and has two sons, Soham and Shubh.

As a child, Shaan began his career singing jingles for advertisements. After giving it up for a brief period he returned and, along with jingles, began to sing remixes and cover versions. In the 1989 movie Parinda, aged only 17, Shaan sang a single line in the song, "Kitni Hai Pyari Pyari Dosti Hamari".
Shaan and his sister's career began when they signed up with Magnasound recording company and recorded a few successful albums, including the hit album Naujawan followed by Q - Funk, which sold a million copies. He entered the pop scene with sister Sagarika, singing Biddu’s melodies and doing re-mixes.Then came Roop Tera Mastana, a remix album of R.D. Burman's songs, that brought them further into the limelight.
Shaan launched Loveology after this, which was well received.^{[citation needed]} He wrote the lyrics of the ballad "Bhool Ja" on his second album Tanha Dil, which appeared in the charts within days of its release and was popular on radio.
In 2000 he won the MTV Asia Music Award for best solo album for his album Tanha Dil. Three years later Shaan launched his album Aksar which was successful and contained songs featuring international stars such as Blue, Mel C and Samira Said.
For both the albums Tanha Dil and Aksar, Shaan sang, composed and wrote the lyrics of all the songs, except the title track "Tanha Dil" which was composed by Ram Sampath, who is also famous for the Bhag DK Bose song from the movie, Delhi Belly.
In 2006, he released a song with MLTR, "Take me to your heart". The song appears on his album Tishnagi which is produced by Ranjit Barot and engineered by Ashish Manchanda. The song "Shuruat" on his album Tishnagi was made into a music video to promote the film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.^{[citation needed]}
He released Tomar Aakash in 2004, a Bengali album, along with his sister and featuring his father's unreleased songs.^[2] He also plans to release an album remaking his father's compositions with his sister in Hindi. He recently sang one of his father's compositions on sets of STAR Plus's Music Ka Maha Muqqabla.