She was a very popular playback singer of her time in the 1950s alongside Sandhya Mukherjee, Pratima Banderjee, Alpana Banerjee, etc.

Utpala Sen was born on 12 March 1924 in Dhaka, British India (now in Bangladesh) in a Hindu family.

She took her initial lessons in music from Hiranbala Devi and then from Ustad Gul Mohammad Khan.

In 1941, she got immense popularity with the devotional song "Ek Hate Mor Pujar Thala" which was composed by Sudhirlal Chakraborty.

The song "Prantateri Gaan Amar" in a 1953 film composed by Salil Chowdhury gave her eternity and is considered to be her best work to date.