One of the most successful artists in current generation is affable Shankar Mahadevan. An artist with numerous talents, Shankar has carved a niche for himself in tough world of Indian music industry. Born in Chennai, he is not only a playback singer but also successful composer and pop singer. His talent truly knows no bounds. As a music director he works with Ehsaan and Loy in the famous trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. He is an accomplished singer in Tamil music and equally popular in Hindi cinema.

Right from his childhood, Shankar Mahadevan showed glimpses of his talent. He was introduced to Indian Classical Music and Carnatic music at an early age and he took it like a fish takes to water. Astonishingly he started to play Veena at an age of just five. He is an engineer by profession and composer by choice. He left his successful career in IT company and dared to venture into competitive world of Indian music. Now, we all know how wonderful that decision was. During the initial phase of his musical journey he won an award as best Playback singer and subsequently also won National Film Award for the movie Kandukondain Kandukondain. He sings in several languages like Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Marathi.

Shankar Mahadevan has also released pop album called ‘Breathless’. He has also collaborated with other artists like Fusion-Jazz band SILK with Louis Banks on Keyboards, Sivamani on percussion and Sridhar Parthasarathy on Mridangam. Shankar Mahadevan has won several awards. He is a recipient of Swaralaya-Kairali-Yesudas Award, National Film Award for Best Playback Singer, several Filmfare awards like Best Music Direction, Best Background Music, Best singer award etc.

One of the most talented Tamil singer and composer is Deva. He is in Tamil film industry for more than 20 years and needless to say, this has proved to be one memorable journey for this amazing singer. A great talent, Deva is also known as the “Father of Gaana Genre” in Tamil film industry. His musical journey started in 1989 with the film Manasukkeththa Maharaasa. He composed music for this movie and all the songs were chartbusters. The astonishing fact is Deva has composed music for no less than 400 movies. He has passed on his musical genes to his son Srikanth Deva who is also an established name in Tamil music direction.

Deva’s most popular songs have come from movies like Aasai, Citizen, Kaadhal Kottai, Chocolate, Kaalamellam Kaadhal Vaazhga, Annamalai, Dum, Avvai Shanmugi, Chokka Thangam, Bhagavathi, Basha and Devadhayai Kanden. A recipient of many awards, Deva has got a large fan following. His first came in 1990 when he won Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Thereafter he has won Tamil Nadu Government’s Kalaimamani Award and several other awards from popular journals.  

Deva had struggled to make his mark in film industry. During his initial days, he worked in the Television field. He belonged to a family of musicians. Even his brothers were working in the musical troupes of Illayaraja and other music directors as instrumentalists. But Deva took his own sweet time to develop his skills and wanted to make his mark in an individual capacity. But the struggling period was long. Even the initial music assignments received by him did not materialize and films had to be shelved. Finally, all his hard work came to fruition when he signed his first movie, Manasukkeththa Maharaasaa. This movie was followed by Vaikaasi Poranthaachu and this movie turned his life forever. Its songs were huge hits and thereafter he never looked back. Deva has also dabbled into other regional movies and proved to be a huge hit.

Tamil film industry is credited to give us several promising and wonderful singers over the years. Not only classical but film singers also have made Tamil Nadu proud with their singing abilities. Most of these singers have also ventured into other languages like Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada etc apart from Tamil. One of the famous Tamil singers is Srinivas. He has been immensely successful in south Indian film industry. Srinivas developed interest in music from a very early age. He was born in a place called Ambasamudram to Duraiswamy Iyengar and Lakshmi. He grew up in Trivandrum. His first brush with music took place in company of bhajan groups. Thesew groups used to walk by the streets. He learned music from his aunt Mrs. Padmanarayanan. He was also fond of Hindi songs of Kishore kumar and R D Burman.

Srinivas first approached music maestro Ilayaraja but things did not work out as planned. Later on he approached another legend A. R. Rahman who immediately got impressed with his talent. He offered him some work. Srivinas continued struggling with devotional albums and advertising jingles. His first big break came with song Sorgam Enbathu Namakku from the movie Nammavar, composed by Mahesh. It was followed by another hit Manna Madurai in 1996. Then came En Uyire in Mani Ratnam’s Uyire and composed by A. R. Rahman. Since then, it has been a memorable journey for talented singer.

After that hit, offers came pouring in at his doorsteps. Srinivas worked with famous music composers like Ilayaraja, Deva, A.R.Rahman, Vidyasagar etc. he has also sung in other languages like Malayalam and Telugu. Srinivas took a bold step when he composed music for a movie named Ae Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke. He also composed music for a Malayalam movie. Srinivas has also won big awads like State Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu and Kerala State Award apart from title ‘Kalaimamani’ conferred by the Tamil Nadu Government.

SP Balasubramaniam is one of the most renowned Indian singers. Born on June 4, 1946 in a place named Konetammapeta, Andhra Pradesh, SP belonged to a family of artists. His father was a famous exponent of Harikatha and his sister SP Sailaja has earned many accolades in south film industry. He found interest in music at a very early age and without going through any formal training learned flute and harmonium on his own. He also did B.Tech from JNTU College of Engineering. A veteran singer, SP Balasubramaniam is in film industry since 30 years. He is also knonw as SPB.

One of the most versatile singers of his generation, SPB has a unique style of singing and his voice range is subject to huge appreciation. He has sung songs in no less than five languages and number of songs goes in thousands. He is perhaps the most popular singer in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu music industry. A truly versatile artist, he has also dabbled successfully in music composing, acting and dubbing.

SP Balasubramanyam has also worked as an actor in quite a few regional movies. He has worked in Telugu and Tamil movies. Very few people are aware of his talent as a dubbing artist. He has dubbed for actors like Kamal Hassan, Mohan, Raghuvaran, Salman Khan, Bhagyaraj, Girish Karnad, Karthik, Gemini Ganesh, Nagesh, and Vinodkumar. SP Balasubramanyam has won numerous awards. He has been a recipient of National Award for no less than six times. He won this prestigious award for songs like Om Kaara Nadhaanu, Umandu Ghumandu Ghana Gar Je Badara, Tere Mere Beech Mein and Cheppaalani Undi etc. Apart from several state Government awards, Film fare awards and numerous Felicitation has been accorded to his huge talent.

Most Tamil movie songs are sung by singers who sing not only in the Tamil language but also in other south Indian languages namely Telegu, Malayalam and Kannada. Most of these singers maybe mainstream Bollywood singers, that is singing Hindi movie songs or south Indian music industry singers who also sing in Hindi movies. Most Tamil singers today are those who sing for the Tamil movies. These singers like Hariharan, SP Balasubramanium are very popular not just in the Tamil movies but in the Hindi music industry as well.

Most Carnatic singers perform in Tamil language along with Telegu and Sanskrit. Popular female Carnatic singers are MS Subbulakshmi, Bombay Sisters, Nithyasree Mahadevan, D.K. Pattammal, Sulamangalam Sisters, K.B. Sundarambal, N.C. Vasanthakokilam, and M. L.Vasanthakumari. The leading male singers are M.Balamuralikrishna, G. N. Balasubramanian, Chembai Vaidyanatha Iyer, Sirkali Govindarajan, S.G.Kittapa, Hariharan, Madurai Mani Iyer, Madurai Somasundaram, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Rajkumar Bharathi, Semmengudi Srinivasa Iyer, Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan, P.Unnikrishnan, and K.J.Yesudas.

Famous female Tamil movie singers include KS Chitra, Mahalaxmi Iyer, P Susheela who has won 5 national awards, S Janaki the winner of 7 Tamil Nadu state awards, Sailaja, Sadhna Sargam, Vani Jayaram and Vasundhara Das to name a few. Bollywood female singers popular in the Tamil music industry are Shreya Ghoshal, Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar.

Popular male Tamil movie singers are Hariharan who is also an acclaimed ghazal singer, Jayachandran, Karthik, KK who is very popular in Bollywood too, KJ Yesudas who is also a Carnatic classical singer, Madhu Balakrishnan, Mano, Sreenivas, SP Balasubramanium probably the most famous Tamil singer who has won 6 national awards and 3 state awards etc. His mp3 are widely available online for free download.