Here’s why Alka Yagnik is not taking up new singing assignments

The crystalline voice that characterised an entire generation of Bollywood cinema has fallen silent, as playback singing legend Alka Yagnik offered a candid update on her health. While she stunned the Indian music world in 2024 with a diagnosis of a rare form of hearing loss, she has since confessed to being “still suffering” from a rare form of sensorineural nerve hearing loss, or SNHL, following a viral attack after a flight.

Alka Yagnik opens up on suffering from rare hearing disorder

While music directors and composers continue to approach the veteran singer for fresh work, she has been forced to turn them down. “Composers approach me now and then. But I am not able to do it,” she revealed, as a poignant silence marks a career that has seen her sing over 2,400 songs.

The influence of this illness on the Indian music industry is huge. Alka, who has now become the most-streamed artist on YouTube, surpassing global artistes such as Taylor Swift, last sang for a song titled Naram Kaalja for the film titled Amar Singh Chamkila, which is scheduled to release in 2024. Since then, the Padma Bhushan awardee has focused solely on recovering from this illness.

Not just focusing on herself, Alka has issued a crucial message to her fans on how they must be careful with their auditory health, as their world can go silent in a split second.

The ‘Queen of Playback’ is still a force to reckon with, despite this setback in her life, as her return to the microphone is still unsure, while her legacy lives on through the record-breaking billions of streams she receives on a yearly basis.

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.