The Filmfare Best Female Playback Award is given by ''

Filmfare ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English language, English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of Indian most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, r ...

'' as part of its annual

Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

for

Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, to recognise a female

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

who has delivered an outstanding performance in a film song. Although the award ceremony was established in 1954, the category for best

was introduced in 1959. The award was initially common for both male and female singers until 1967. The category was divided the following year, and ever since there have been two awards presented for male and female singers separately. , 7 , - style="height:1em;" , Most nominations , Alka Yagnik , 36 , - style="height:1em;" , Most nominations without ever winning ,

Usha Mangeshkar Usha Mangeshkar (born 15 December 1935) is an Indian singer who has recorded many Marathi, Manipuri, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Assamese songs. Personal life Usha Mangeshkar is an Indian singer. She is the fou ...

Chandrani Mukherjee Chandrani Mukherjee is a former Bollywood playback singer, she is a sister-in-law of Bappi Lahiri from West Bengal and a Filmfare nominee. Chandrani began her career in Bollywood with the film '' Aag Aur Toofan'' in 1975. Thereafter she sang in ...

, 3 , - style="height:1em;" , Most nominations in a single year , Asha Bhosle (1975), Alka Yagnik (1994) , 4 , - , - style="height:1em;" , Oldest winner ,

Usha Uthup Usha Uthup Iyer (born 7 November 1947) is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer who sang songs in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. "Darling", which she recorded with Rekha Bhardwaj for the film ''7 Khoon Maaf'', won the Filmfare Award ...

, 64 , - style="height:1em;" , Oldest nominee , Usha Uthup , 64 , - style="height:1em;" , Youngest winner ,

Nazia Hassan Nazia Hassan (3 April 1965 – 13 August 2000) was a Pakistani singer-songwriter, lawyer and social activist. Referred to as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of South Asian pop, she is considered one of the most influential singe ...

, 16 , - style="height:1em;" , Youngest nominee ,

Poornima Pūrṇimā () is the word for full moon in Sanskrit. The day of Purnima is the day (''Tithi'') in each month when the full moon occurs, and marks the division in each month between the two lunar fortnights (paksha), and the Moon is aligned exactl ...

, 11

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the ...

Alka Yagnik Alka, AlkA or ALKA may refer to: People * Alka Ajith (born c. 1997), Indian multilingual playback singer * Alka Amin (active from 2011), Indian television actress * Alka Balram Kshatriya, Indian politician, Member of the Parliament of India repr ...

with seven wins each, hold the record for most awards in this category.

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awar ...

has won the award six times.

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

Anuradha Paudwal Anuradha Paudwal (born 27 October 1954) is an Indian playback singer who works predominantly in Hindi cinema. She has been described in media as one of the most prominent Bhajan singer and also as one of the most successful playback singers ...

and

Kavita Krishnamurthy Sharada Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded 50,000 songs in 45 various Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Rajasthani, Bhojp ...

have won the award four times. Bhosle won the award in a record of four consecutive years (1972–75), followed by the three consecutive wins of Paudwal (1991–1993), Krishnamurthy (1995–1997) and Yagnik (2000–2002), respectively. Two singers have achieved the feat of receiving all the nominations of this category in a particular year: Asha Bhosle was the single nominee in 1973, having all the three nominations to her credit, and Alka Yagnik was the single nominee in 1994, having all the four nominations to her credit, one of which she shared—and eventually jointly won—with

Ila Arun Ila Arun is an Indian actress, TV personality and Rajasthani folk and folk-pop singer. She has appeared in many prominent Bollywood movies such as ''Lamhe'', ''Jodhaa Akbar'', ''Shaadi Ke Side Effects'' and '' Begum Jaan''. Personal life Arun ...

. In 1971,

made the unusual gesture of not having her name be considered for the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, in order to promote fresh talent. After receiving her seventh award in 1979,

emulated her elder sister and requested that her name not be considered for the nominations thereafter. There have been ties for two consecutive years between 2010 and 2011. Until the award was not officially divided up for different gender (1968),

was the only artist to win and be nominated for this award. She is also the earliest recipient of this award in 1959. Mangeshkar and

were the most successful singers in 60s with two wins each. Bhosle continued her domination in the 70s with five wins (Mangeshkar not considered from hereon). In 80s no singer dominated the epoch (Bhosle not considered from hereon); however in 90s

and

both had three wins each.

and

garnered four wins each in the 2000s.

Rekha Bhardwaj Rekha Bhardwaj (born 24 January 1964) is an Indian singer and live performer. She has received two Filmfare and one National Awards. In addition to Hindi, she has also sung in Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and Malayalam languages. Personal li ...

and

are leading the 2010s with two wins each. Alka Yagnik holds the record of getting nominated for consecutively 14 years from 1992 till 2005, resulting in 33 nominations and 6 wins, followed by

getting nominated consecutively for 11 years from 2006 to 2016 that resulted in 3 wins and 17 nominations.

Multiple winners

Most consecutive wins

Multiple nominees

Winners and nominees

In 1959, the award category for Best Playback Singer was first instituted after

refused to perform the song "Rasik Balma Se Dil Kyon Lagaya" from the film '' Chori Chori'' by

Shankar Jaikishan Shankar may refer to: People *Shankar (name), including a list of people with the name * Sankar (writer) (Mani Shankar Mukherjee), Bengali writer *L. Shankar, Indian violinist *S. Shankar, Indian film director commonly credited as Shankar *Sankar ...

at the

3rd Filmfare Awards The 3rd Filmfare Awards were held in 1956. ''Biraj Bahu'' and ''Jagriti'' won 2 awards each, with the former winning Best Director (for Bimal Roy) and Best Actress (for Kamini Kaushal), and the latter winning Best Film and Best Supporting Acto ...

. Mangeshkar also became the first recipient of this award. Separate awards for male and female singers were introduced from 1968. Note: The category for Best Playback Singer was established in 1959, and until 1967 both male and female singers used to compete for a single award. Lata Mangeshkar at Vishwashanti Kala Academy Award