Daler Mehndi

Daler Mehndi was born into the Mirasi community at Patna, Bihar. In 1991, he formed his own group, comprising his brothers, cousins and friends. In 1994, he was awarded the Voice of Asia International Ethnic and Pop Music Contest in 1994 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In 1997 he released his third album Balle Balle. This got him Channel V Awards in six categories. Like his previous albums, Balle Balle went multi-platinum. The same year, Mehndi composed and performed the popular track "Na Na Na Re" for the Bollywood film Mrityudata, where he featured on the big screen with Amitabh Bachchan. The film's Bollywood soundtrack album sold 1.5 million units in India.

In 1998, he released "Tunak Tunak Tun", which had a music video produced on a then unprecedented budget of ₹25 million ($610,000), equivalent to ₹91 million ($1.14 million) adjusted for inflation. The song and video was a success in India, cementing Mehndi's status as India's biggest popstar at the time, before later becoming an international success. The album won the award for Best Indian Pop Album at the 1998 Screen Awards.

In 1998, Mehndi was signed by Coca-Cola for product endorsement and was featured in 30 concerts across India. He has performed worldwide including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, East Africa, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, West Indies, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In 1998 Mehndi launched the "Daler Mehndi Green Drive", inducted in the Special Task Force of the Delhi Government. The drive has planted over 1.2 million saplings in and around Delhi.

In 2000, Mehndi released his album Ek Dana with music label TIPS Music. The album had a mix of genres ranging from Folk, Rock and Pop. One of the more popular songs of the album Sajan Mere Satrangiya featured the Indian actress Priyanka Chopra in the video. This video was released in the year that Priyanka Chopra won the Miss World title. Subsequently, Daler signed up with Universal Music in 2001 and released a new track "Kala Kauwa Kaat Khayega". In 2003 Daler forayed into playback singing for films. He started with the song "Ru-Ba-Ru" for the film Maqbool. The same year Daler and A.R Rahman came together to give another track "Nach Le" for Lakeer – Forbidden Lines. He fused Rock with Bhangra with his next album titled Mojaan Laen Do and in 2004 he self-produced Shaa Ra Ra.

Mehndi and six others were accused in 2003 of cheating people of large sums of money by falsely promising to take them to Western countries. In March 2018, Mehndi was sentenced to 2-years in prison by Patiala court in a human trafficking case. The singer and his brother Shamsher were charged for illegally sending people abroad as a part of their dance troupes. Daler was arrested after registration of the case and released on bail after a few days. Mehndi said he will appeal against the conviction in a higher court.

Mehndi is credited for creating a genre called "Rabbabi", a combination of Thumri, Sufi and rock and creating an instrument called "Swar Mandir" that combines influences from the Rabab, Swarmandal and Tanpura. The instrument was crafted by Sanjay Rikhi Ram from Delhi and was launched on 10 February 2012 by the Indian classical music maestro, Bharat Ratna awardee Pandit Ravi Shankar.

On 29 September 2013, Daler performed at the YouFest festival in Spain. He has had an advent with Canadian Electronic Dance Music (EDM) artist Deadmau5 in a Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce, Daler featured on his tour in India and together they produced an EDM remixed version of "Tunak Tunak Tun".

In March 2014, Deadmau5 and Mehndi made a remix of Mehndi's 1998 hit "Tunak Tunak Tun" performed by the duo.

On Navratri 2014, Mehndi composed and recorded his rendition of the 'Hanuman Chalisa' overnight while working at his studio in Delhi. Daler Mehndi, feeling inspired during the festival of Navratri, composed and record his rendition of the 'Hanuman Chalisa' in the DM Folk Studio.

In September 2014, Mehndi released his song 'Aaja Mere Twitter Te' to encourage users to visit his Twitter account and Facebook page.

On 6 November 2014, Mehndi released his album 'Best of Gurbani' on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti.

In August 2014, Mehndi was invited as the guest of honour along with U.S Congressman Pete Sessions for the closing bell ceremony at NASDAQ Stock Exchange at New York, after which he performed at the National Indian American Public Policy Institute Azadi Diwas (NIAPPI) celebrations on the occasion of the 65th Independence Day.

In November 2014, the singer visited Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh for a performance.

In November 2014, Mehndi was invited to Nigeria for a performance to celebrate Diwali. This was the second time the musician has performed in the country.

Mehndi is the brother of singers Mika Singh and Shamsher Singh. Daler Mehndi is married to Taranpreet Kaur. He has four children – Gurdeep Mehndi, Ajit Kaur Mehndi, Prabhjot Kaur Mehndi and Rabaab Kaur Mehndi. His daughter Ajit Kaur Mehndi is married to Navraj Hans, son of Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans. Gurdeep Mehndi got engaged to his fellow actress from Delhi 1984, Jessica Singh in 2014.

He entered in politics by joining BJP on 26 April 2019.