The music of Kerala has a complex history. It is not the same as Malayalam poetry, although most of it is poetry driven. Kerala has a rich tradition in Carnatic music. Songs formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which traces its origin to the 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. With the development of music in the region, different branches were formed out of it.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 30,000 songs in various Indian languages, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration with music composers like A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, Hamsalekha, M. M. Keeravani and with the playback singers K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam over the years. She is cited as the Golden Voice of India by world's Prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London in 2001 and Melody Queen of Indian Cinema by Radio Mirchi, The Times Group in 2016. She is honoured with the title First Ladies by the President of India in 2018 for being the first Indian woman to be honoured by British Parliament at House of Commons, United Kingdom in 2003. People of India fondly called her as Little Nightingale of Indian Cinema.
Vasundhara Das is an Indian singer, musician and former actress. Vasundhara's acting career includes Hey Ram (Tamil/Hindi), Monsoon Wedding (English), Citizen (Tamil), Ravana Prabhu (Malayalam), Lankesh Patrike (Kannada) and several others. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil for the song, "Shakalaka Baby" from the film Mudhalvan
Thattil Antony Johnson, popularly known as Johnson Master, was an Indian film score composer and music director who has given music to some of the most important motion pictures of Malayalam cinema, including those for Koodevide, Namukku Paarkkan Munthiri Thoppukal, Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam, Vadakkunokkiyantram, Perumthachan, Njan Gandharvan, Ponthan Mada, and Bhoothakkannadi. Regarded as one of the finest composers in the industry, he was noted for his lyrical and expressive melodies together with simple but rich tonal compositions of thematic music. Johnson is a recipient of National Film Awards twice and Kerala State Film Awards five times.
Swarnalatha was an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning almost 22 years, she recorded over 10,000 songs in many Indian languages, including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, and Badaga. Her beautiful voice is the reason behind her title “Queen of Tones In India”.
Star Singer is an Indian music reality-television competition, broadcast on Asianet and previously sponsored by Idea Cellular. The show, which selected contestants in the age group of 15–35 years determined the winner based on their skill in singing and entertainment. From Season 1 to 7, Text messages are sent by the shows' audience to vote for the best performing participant and a small weightage of this score is considered for a candidate to be shortlisted to next round. In Season 8 voting is conducted on Disney+ Hotstar, Star Network's official OTT platform. From Season 9, judges decisions are made final thus votings are cancelled but marks can be entered on Disney+ Hotstar and these have small consideration. The show also features a panel of judges who are prominent personalities in the Malayalam music industry and they offer scores and evaluations of performance to the contestants in every stage of the competition. In 2009, Star singer Junior was launched.
Shweta Mohan is an Indian playback singer. She has received four Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer, one Kerala State Film Award and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. She has recorded more than 800 songs and albums in all the four south Indian languages namely Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, she has also recorded songs for Hindi films and has established herself as a leading playback singer of South Indian cinema.
Manjari is an Indian playback singer and Hindustani vocalist. Her first stage performance was with Shiva, the Kolkata - based rock band, when she was in class eight.
Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni, more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, and Hindi languages.
Shantha P. Nair was a playback singer in Malayalam cinema. She was based in Thrissur, Kerala.
Aalap Raju is a playback singer and a bass guitar player from Chennai, India. His rendition of Enamo Aedho from the movie Ko composed by Harris Jayaraj topped the music charts for several months in 2011 and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer – 2011. He has sung for music directors like Harris Jayaraj, Thaman, G.V Prakash, Deepak Dev, D.Imman, Sreekanth Deva and many more. His other noticeable songs include Vaaya moodi summa iru da from Mugamoodi, Engeyum Kadhal from Engeyum Kadhal, Endhan Kann Munnae from Nanban, Kadhal Oru Butterfly and Akila Akila from Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, Anjana Anjana from Vandhan Vendran, Kuthu Kuthu from Ayyanar, Nenjodu Cherthu from Yuvvh, Theeyae Theeyae from Maattrraan, Jal Jal Osai from Manam Kothi Paravai, and Maya Bazaar from Ennai Arindhaal.
Sithara Krishnakumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, lyricist, classical dancer and an occasional actor. She predominantly works in Malayalam cinema in addition to Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Sithara is a well known singer who is trained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical music traditions and is also a recognised ghazal singer. She is the recipient of several awards which includes three Kerala State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer.
Srimathumitha is an Indian playback and Carnatic singer who sings mainly in Tamil. She has also sung in Telugu, Hindi and Kannada songs. Some of her notable songs are "Azhage Azhage" from the movie Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, "Valayapatti Thavile" from the movie Azhagiya Tamil Magan, "Kanaa Kaanum Kalangal" from the movie 7G Rainbow Colony, and "Rathathin Rathame" from the movie Velayudham. She is one of the leading playback singers in today’s film music scenario. She has sung for leading music directors like Ilayaraja, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, A. R. Rahman, Bharadwaj, Deva, S. A. Rajkumar, and Bharani. She emerged as the "Best Voice of 2002" in the TV Reality Show Rajageetham conducted by RAJ TV. She is the first playback singer to win the Vikadan Awards started in 2004, which was juried by late Sujatha. A. R. Rahman has featured her in two songs in the soundtrack of Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
Kaushik Menon is a vocalist and an Indian playback singer working in the south Indian film industry. He started his professional playback singing career in the year in 2003, and since has been working as playback singer for multiple languages - including Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. He is known for his song, "Natkal Nagarndhu" – the song of friendship from the movie Ninaithale Inikkum that gave him a major breakthrough as a playback singer. He owns a recording studio at Chennai named 'Tapas Studio'. At present he is working as an RJ in a reputed FM in UAE, also he is busy with his music events.
Anoop Sankar is an Indian film playback singer, songwriter, stage performer, VJ, RJ and media personality.
Basheerinte Premalekhanam is a 2017 Indian Malayalam film directed by Aneesh Anwar. The film stars Farhaan Faasil and Sana Althaf in lead roles. It is a romantic comedy set in the 1980s. Cinematographer was Sanjay Harris.
Gopika Poornima is an Indian singer who mostly sings for Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada language films. She became popular with the singing competition Padutha Theeyaga. Her husband Mallikarjun is also a singer and composer in Telugu Film Industry.
M. S. Rajeswari was an Indian playback singer who has recorded over 500 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films.
Ganga Sittrarasu is an Indian playback singer who has worked in the Indian film industry. Ganga worked extensively with A. R. Rahman during the late 1990s and early 2000s, while also regularly collaborating with M. M. Keeravani.
Surmukhi Raman, born on 15 September 1983 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu is an Indian playback singer from Tamil Nadu. She was brought up in Pune, Maharashtra. She occasionally writes lyrics. She is one of the emerging playback singers in South India. She has done playback for more than 150 film songs in four languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. In addition, she has recorded a number of devotionals. She has performed in numerous concerts in India and abroad.
