Alisha's initial foray into the Hindi music was through her album, Jadoo, the music for which was composed by Anu Malik. She also had another album titled Babydoll. She was introduced to the Hindi film music by the veteran music director and composer Bappi Lahiri. They had many disco hits together in many films in the 1980s including "Tarzan", Dance Dance, Commando, Guru, Love Love Love etc. When she started her career with him, she was doing playback singing for many actresses, such as Smita Patil, Mandakini, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit and Divya Bharati etc. In 1985, Alisha sang with Remo Fernandes in the album Old Goan Gold. The songs she sang in this album became very popular.

In the 90s, she took on working in different films, collaborating with other music directors, such as Anu Malik and Nadeem-Shravan. Throughout these years, she had numerous Bollywood hit songs, including Tere Ishq Mein Nachenge (Raja Hindustani), Roundhe (Pyar Tune Kya Kiya), Sona Sona Roop Hai (Bollywood/Hollywood), and the controversial Sexy sexy sexy Mujhe Log Bole (Khud-daar).

Simultaneously with playback singing, she has recorded many songs as a pop singer, with album releases. Chinai was noted for her 1996 hit single and album, titled "Made in India", which was composed by Biddu and collaborated by late Pakistani Pop Singer Nazia Hassan. Nazia was offered to provide lead vocal but she put the offer down because she wouldn't sing a song which will offend Pakistan or India. This album also contains another well-known song, "Lover Girl". However, her follow-up albums were less successful.

Alisha's comeback to film music was with the song "Oh My Darling" in the Yash Raj Film Mujhse Dosti Karoge.

In 2005, she had one of her highest career points came with the song Kajra Re (Bunty Aur Babli). The song was a hit and Alisha won her first Filmfare Best Female Playback Award.