A playback singer is a singer whose song is pre-recorded for use in films. The singer stays in the background and the actors or actresses mouth the song. This is a form of singing that is considerably developed in the Indian sub-continent. Some of the great playback singers have been Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh whilst great female singers are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt. At present the recognised better singers are Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet , and Sonu Nigam amongst males and Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamurthy amongst females.

Playback singing is a very important part of Indian culture; most hit Bollywood films are musicals. The songs of a film and the quality of the music — its music director (composer), lyricist and singer have often determined the success of a film. Often film albums are released before the films are released and therefore there is sometimes a mismatch between the songs on film and the songs on its CD or LP or tape.

See Also

• List of male singers
• List of female singers