Anup Jalota was born on July 26, 1953 at Nainital and studied at Lucknow. He started learning bhajans at the age of five from his father, Purushottam Das Jalota, a renowned bhajan singer of North India. He learnt classical music from Bhatkhande University of Music in Lucknow, and completed the courses of Prayag Sangeet Samiti. He is a Sangeet Prabhakar and stood first in Sangeet Madhyama. His spiritual guru is Swami Lokeshanandji.He recorded his first song when he was only seven years old. Anup continued to perform right through his college days and completed his graduation in 1973 in Sanskrit and Political Science. He began his career as a chorus singer in the Lucknow All India Radio.

Anup Jalota is popularly known as the "Bhajan Samraat" of India and has spearheaded a mini-cultural renaissance in India by repopularizing the infinite beauty of spiritual music in the form of Bhajans. Anup Jalota, a household name in India, had a monumental 160 plus releases until 1998, and achieved 58 gold, platinum and multi platinum discs for his bhajans and ghazals. He surpassed Presley’s 45 gold and platinum discs between 1980-85, which was the credit of the former in the fifties and sixties. Analysts say that there is no record company in India that did not release his cassette or disc. Anup Jalota is credited with singing more than 500 bhajans and 120 ghazals. He is also known for his recitals in other languages like Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Sanskrit and Urdu, in addition to Hindi