Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was an Indian playback singer and one of the most popular singers of the Hindi film industry. Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility; his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor, lip-synching the song on screen in the movie.^[1] Between 1950 and 1970, Rafi was the most sought after singer in the Hindi film industry.^[1] He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.^[2]

Rafi is primarily noted for his songs in Hindi, over which he had a strong command. He sang around 7,405 songs in many languages.^[3] He sang in other Indian languages including Bengali, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili, Sinhalese and Urdu. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in English, Farsi, Arabic, Creole and Dutch.^[4][5]