Who was KK? Bollywood singer passes away at 53

The sudden demise of singer KK left a void in the Hindi music industry after he passed away on Tuesday at the age of 53. KK, a popular Bollywood singer, has lent his voice to many chartbuster songs including Shah Rukh Khan’s popular song ‘Aankhon Main Teri’ from the movie Om Shanti Om, which marked the debut of actress Deepika Padukone.

KK was in Kolkata for a live concert. After his concert, he reportedly fell down the stairs of the hotel where he was staying. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, where the doctors declared him dead on arrival.

KK marked his Bollywood debut as a playback singer with the 90s superhit song ‘Tadap Tadap’ from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Saman’, starring Salaman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Ajay Devgn. Since then, KK gave emerged as one of the most popular male playback singers in the Hindi music industry, having lent his voice to A-listers from the industry including Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan among others.

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Not just Bollywood, but KK was also a popular singer down South. He has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. In fact, the deceased singer had also won the Best Playback Singer – Male for South’s Filmfare Award (Kannada), Hub Awards (Tamil) and also Eenam – Swaralaya Singer of the Year Award (Malayalam), apart from winning numerous awards in the Hindi film industry.

It was music maestro AR Rahman who had introduced KK as a playback singer with the superhit song ‘Kalluri Saaley’ after which he went on to sing ‘Hello Dr’ and ‘Strawberry Kannae’.

But, before beginning his musical journey in the film industries, KK used to sing jingles for commercials. He, in fact, also sun the title tracks for several television serials including Just Mohobbat, Hip Hip Hurray and Shakalaka Boom Boom, among others. However, KK is best known for his debut album, ‘Pal’ which was released in the year 1999. One of the most famous songs from that album is ‘Yaaron’ which went on to become the friendship anthem song and continues to be even today.