Alisha Chinoy, also commonly known as Alisha Chinai, is an Indian singer who is best remembered for her ground-breaking contribution to Indian pop music, which flourished in the beginning of the 1990s. She is often referred to as "Indian Madonna" for her stylised voice and defining contribution to popular music in the Indian audio cassette culture and cable technology boom.

Born in 1972 to a Gujarati family, Alisha's interest in singing brought her to Hindi film industry in the 1980s. Chinai was discovered by Bappi Lahiri, the veteran composer and music director. Together, they made it big with many disco hits in a large number of films in the 1980s, including Tarzan (1985), Dance Dance (1987), Love Love Love (1989), and so on. The songs gained immense popularity and Alisha started collaborating with other music directors such as Anu Malik, Kalyanji-Anandji and Nadeem-Shravan.

While doing playback singing for films, Alisha also continued to work on private albums. In 1985, she sang with Remo Fernandes in the album Old Goan Gold. The album became very popular. But Alisha finally got her big break in the beginning of 1990s with her album, Made in India (1996). This was a revolutionary phase for Indian music which finally seemed to be breaking out of the shackles of film music. The boom was also contributed to great cross-cultural influences by artists such as Biddu, Baba Sehgal, Sukhbir, Remo Fernandes, and others who were also experimenting with different kinds of music.

Chinoy's album became an instant hit and the sales hit record numbers making her a household name and giving her the moniker of “the Queen of Indipop.”

In the 90s, she continued her work in films and sang hit songs including 'Sexy, Sexy, Sexy’ (Khudaar, 1994),'Tere Ishq Mein Nachenge' (Raja Hindustani, 1996), and 'Roundhe hai' (Pyar Tune Kya Kiya, 2001).

In the 2000s, Alisha made a comeback in the film Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002), with her song “Oh My Darling.” In 2005, she gave one of the biggest hit songs of her career, 'Kajra Re' from the film Bunty Aur Babli (2005). The song won Alisha her first Filmfare Award for the Best Female Playback Singer. In recent times, she also sung in Ishq Vishk (2003), Mumbai Salsa (2007), and Krrish 3 (2013).

Alisha Chinoy was also one of the judges on the panel of the music reality show Indian Idol 3. Apart from that, she was the judge for Zee TV’s Star Ya Rockstar. As one of the faces of modern Indian music, her talent and awareness of contemporary trends make her appealing to the youth of today.