Photos: Sonu Nigam receives Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind

Popular Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam received Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Sonu Nigam is recognised as one of the best playback singers who sings predominantly in Hindi and Kannada language films. He has also sung in several other languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bhojpuri among others.

After being conferred with the Padma Shri, the singer had earlier expressed his happiness and in a statement, he had shared that he would like to dedicate the award to his late mother Shobha Nigam.

"I would also like to thank my mother, Shobha Nigam, and my father, Agam Kumar Nigam. In fact, I want to dedicate this award to my mother. Had she been here today, she would have cried a lot," Sonu had said in the statement.

Born on July 30, 1973, in Faridabad, Haryana, Sonu is not just a brilliant singer but also a noted music director. Though he predominantly worked in Hindi and Kannada language films, he has also sung in Odia, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri and other Indian languages.

Some of the hits that the singer has given include 'Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin', 'Mai Agar Kahoon', 'Hans Mat Pagli', 'Do Pal' and 'Sandese Aate Hai'.

Sonu Nigam has also released a number of non-film albums and acted in some Hindi films.

With over 5,000 released songs till date, he is known as the 'Modern Rafi' after his musical idol Mohammad Rafi.