Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister releases Jagjit Singh's Album

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, today released an album of bhajans by Shri Jagjit Singh. The profit from the sale of the album will be sent to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the Tsunami victims.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that with their roots in Punjab and Rajasthan, Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh had developed a unique style of Indian music that continued to move audiences to tears at home and overseas. "Be it in Amritsar or Mumbai, in Chennai or London, in Toronto or Cairo, this disciple of Ustad Jamal Khan has done wonders for all of us." Dr. Singh added that Jagjit was not just a pan-Indian but a global artist with fans in all continents. "The music of Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh is associated with happiness and celebration, with piety and devotion, with sadness and contemplation. This ability to invoke the full range of human emotion is a great quality in a singer. His ability to blend the traditional and the modern, both in tunes and in instruments, has made him popular with different generations of our music loving public. That both my wife and my daughters love the music of Jagjit-ji and Chitra-ji is a testimony to their appeal across generations", he added.

Dr. Singh said that he was looking forward to listening to his music later in the evening. There was no better way of ending a long working day than tuning in to the calm and serene voice of Shri Jagjit Singh, he added.

Shri Jagjit Singh, Shri R.P. Goenka and Shri Sanjeev Goenka, Chairman of Sarigama HMV also spoke on the occasion. Shri Jagjit Singh presented a cheque of Rs.11 lakh as his personal contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund in aid of the Tsunami victims.