Career
Born in Mumbai, India, Hema Sardesai hails from Goa.
She began singing from a very young age and made her stage debut as an eight-year-old at the Navratri Festival. As a child, teachers and friends used to call her Happy Go Lucky Girl and even today she is frequently called so by her colleagues in the Indian music industry.
She started her playback singing career in 1989 and made her debut in the film Goonj, singing for actress Juhi Chawla. Since then she has sung songs for over 60 Hindi films for many popular actresses like Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Tabbu, Kajol, Preity Zinta, Sushmita Sen and Kareena Kapoor, collaborating with some of India's most prominent music directors and composers, including Anu Malik, A. R. Rahman, Rajesh Roshan, Nadeem-Shravan, Vishal Bhardwaj and Pritam.
Her first milestone achievement was her winning the Grand Prix at the 16th International Pop Song Festival '89 held in Germany. This gave her an opportunity to express her stage talent and, since then, she has successfully performed on TV and live stage shows in almost all the states of India and numerous world tours to places such as the United States, UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, West Indies, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia and so on.
On 15 August 1997 Hema performed at the celebrations for the 50th year of India's Independence. She sang one of her own compositions, "Mere Vatan Hindustan" at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi witnessed by an audience of nearly 3 million people. The song was specially composed for the occasion.
Her 1999 album Piya Se Milke Aaye Nain won Hema an award for "The best selling album of the season".
During her years in the Indian film industry, Sardesai was widely praised for her song performances. Her performances for songs such as Awaara Bhavaren (Sapnay, 1997), Sona Sona Ye Na Hona (Soldier, 1998), Sar Sar Hawa Hai (Daman, 2001), Kitne Kisse Hain (Astitva, 2001), Hai Re Hai Re (Khushi, 2003), Sun Suniyo (Musafir, 2004), the title track of the film Asambhav (2005) among many other, were much appreciated and applauded by critics and audiences.
Hema is the only singer who sang playback duets with four superstars: Amitabh Bachchan (Baghban), Naseeruddin Shah (Asambhav), Govinda (Hum Do Hamara Do) and Shahrukh Khan (Josh).
Hema sang several hit songs in Chris Perry's Konkani album Cu Cu Ru Cu. In 2005, she released a Konkani album, Goa Zaai.
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