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.
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, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, and Badaga. Her beautiful voice is the reason behind her title “Queen of Tones In India”.
Harini is an Indian film playback and classical singer born and raised in Chennai. She sings predominantly in Tamil films, besides other language films such as Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. She was first noticed by music director A. R. Rahman at a school competition where she was one among the winners. Eventually, she was signed in to record the song "Nila Kaigiradhu" for the film Indira (1995) when she was 15. The song went on to become one of the popular songs of the year and Harini began to get singing offers from other leading film composers.
Pulapaka Suseela is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades and is referred to as Evergreen Nightingale of Indian cinema. She is one of the greatest and best-known playback singers in India. She has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as well as by the Asia Book of Records for performing a record number of songs in different Indian languages. She is also the recipient of five National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer and numerous state awards. Susheela is widely acclaimed as a singer who defined feminism in South Indian cinema and is well known for her mellifluous vocal performances for over 50,000 film and devotional songs across South Indian languages.
Sujatha Mohan is an Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies. She has also sung for Kannada, Badaga, Hindi and Marathi and more languages movies. As of 2021, she had recorded more than 10,000 songs.
Thoguluva Meenatchi Iyengar Soundararajan, popularly known as TMS, was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer in Tamil cinema for over six and a half decades. He sang over 10,138 songs from 3,162 films, including devotional, semi-classical, Carnatic, classical and light music songs. He gave classical concerts starting in 1943.
Chinmayi Sripaada is an Indian playback singer, sung more than 2500+ songs, working mainly for the South Indian film industry. She is also a voice actor, entrepreneur, composer, television presenter, radio jockey, linguist, and a classical dancer. She is the founder and CEO of a translation services company Blue Elephant, a skincare company importing K-beauty to India - Isle Of Skin, and a medi-spa Deep Skin Dialogues in Chennai and Hyderabad. She is often credited as Chinmayee and Indai Haza. She rose to fame for her critically acclaimed song "Oru Deivam Thantha Poovae" from the National Award winning movie Kannathil Muthamittal directed by Mani Ratnam and composed by A. R. Rahman. She was 15 years old when she made her singing debut in Kannathil Muthamittal. She debuted as a Dubbing Artist in director Krishna's Sillunu Oru Kaadhal rendering her voice for Bhumika Chawla, after being referred by one of A. R. Rahman's sound engineers. She debuted as a composer with a short lullaby titled Laali, which she also sang and released as part of Instagram's #1MinMusic. She is also a social activist often raising her voice against issues faced by women and has been the face of the second wave of #MeToo movement in India.
"Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung songs in multiple languages, including for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri represents the fourth generation of music practitioner's in her family. Trained by Lalgudi Jayaraman and T.R. Balamani. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, in 2021. In December 2023, she was awarded the most prestigious award in the Carnatic Music Field, the Sangeetha Kalanidhi, by the Madras Music Academy. She was nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Song (Oscar) for Pi's Lullaby from Life of Pi movie. She has become one of the most sought-after Carnatic musicians today.
Anuradha Sriram is an Indian carnatic and playback singer and child actress who hails from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. She has sung more than 3500 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Sinhala, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Hindi films.
Nithyasree Mahadevan, also referred to as S. Nithyasree, is a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. Nithyashree has performed in all major sabhas in India. She has released more than 500 albums. She is best known for her rendition of the A. R. Rahman composition, "Kannodu Kaanbadhellam" - her playback debut song in the Tamil movie Jeans.
Darshana KT is an Indian Tamil playback singer, music composer and artist for films in India. She is currently residing in Chicago and shuttles between India and the US for her music projects.
Airtel Super Singer is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language reality television singing competition, that was sponsored by KAG Tiles for the tenth season. The show is televised in India on Vijay TV, and worldwide through partner broadcasting networks. The show, together with its spin-off editions such as Airtel Super Singer Junior, are part of Vijay TV's Super Singer TV series.
Sriram Parthasarathy is a Carnatic vocalist and playback singer who predominantly works in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films.
Shakthisree Gopalan is an Indian vocalist, composer, songwriter and performer, famous for her collaborations with the top south-Indian music composers like A.R. Rahman. Aside from the film music, she is a regular in the independent music scene, performing with various bands over the years dabbling in Pop, R'n'B, trip-hop and jazz.
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.
Kalpana Raghavendar is an Indian playback singer, winner of Idea Star Singer Malayalam and participant in Bigg Boss Telugu Season 1, songwriter and actor. She started her career as a playback singer at the age of five and, by 2013, had recorded 1,500 tracks and performed in 3,000 shows in India and abroad.
