Shakthisree Gopalan (born 9 October 1988) is an Indian vocalist, 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 Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

trip-hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. She has also been performing and releasing music independently in multiple languages. She is an architect by profession, graduating from School of Architecture and Planning.

Early life

Shakthisree Gopalan was born and brought up in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, Kerala. She did her schooling in Rajagiri Public School,

Kalamassery Kalamassery () is a major industrial region in the city of Kochi in the state of Kerala, India. It houses companies like Apollo Tyres and HMT; IT/Electronics Parks like KINFRA Hi Tech Park, Startup Village, and Electronics City. Kalamassery ...

. She moved to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

after her school and pursued her degree in architecture at the Anna University's School of Architecture and Planning. She was trained in

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

for 13 years. During her 11th standard, SS Music conducted Voice Hunt 1. Since she was under 18, it ended with the auditions. Eventually in 2008, she won the second season of SS Music's Voice Hunt. She was first auditioned in November 2008 and got the opportunity to sing her debut song for the film '' Taxi 4777''.

Career

At the age of 13, Shakthisree Gopalan was already trained in the field of Carnatic music and rock. After having won the "SS Music Voice Hunt " title in the year 2008, Gopalan debuted into film playback in the same year. She was placed third in the Chennai Live's Band hunt. In the year 2014, she performed in MCC (Madras Christian College) cultural fest at Deepwoods and

National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli (NIT Tiruchirappalli or NIT Trichy) is a Public university, public Technical university, technical and research university near the city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded as ...

cultural fest

Festember Festember is a cultural festival organised at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT). It is a 4-day event held annually in the third week of September. It was first incepted in 1975 by then students of NITT, and has now evolve ...

SASTRA University The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy, also known as SASTRA, is a private and deemed university in the town of Thirumalaisamudram, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. SASTRA is ranked by global ranking agencies such as ...

cultural fest Kuruksastra'14, VIT University cultural fest Riviera 14 and

Madras Institute of Technology Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) is an engineering institute located in Chromepet, Chennai, India. It is one of the four autonomous constituent colleges of Anna University. It was established in 1949 by Chinnaswami Rajam as the first self-f ...

cultural fest

Mitafest Mitafest is the inter-college cultural festival of Madras Institute of Technology. The festival is held during the month of January or February every year. It is claimed to be the oldest inter-college festival in Chennai. Mitafest is the oldest a ...

15. "Off the Record" consists of Vikram Vivekanand (Guitar), Satish Narayanan (Bass) and Tapas Naresh/Vinay Ramakrishnan (Drums).

Break

Shaktisree met A R Rahman when she got an assignment to design his music school, K M Music Conservatory. It was around that time she shared the music she had composed with him. That's when she got a break to sing 'Nenjikulle' for the movie Kadal, the first song that she recorded in her career. However, the title track for the composer's Bollywood film, ''

Jab Tak Hai Jaan ''Jab Tak Hai Jaan'' (), also simply known as ''JTHJ'', is a 2012 Cinema of India, Indian Bollywood, Hindi-Hindi, language romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra and written and produced by his son Aditya Chopra under their banner Yash Ra ...

'' (2012) released first. She also got to jam the unplugged version of her Tamil film song "Nenjukkule" from the film '' Kadal'' with A R Rahman. She subsequently went on to record a number of songs for films such as "Irumbukottai Murattu Singham", "Kattradhu Kalavu". She has also been a backlisted vocalist for many A R Rahman compositions. Apart from playback singing for movies, she also collaborated with Prashanth and released an indie single called Begin in November 2017. She also released ‘By Your Side’ in December 2016, in which she collaborated with Hari Dafusia, a Toronto-based keyboardist-producer, and Nigel Roopnarine, a bass player.

Awards

She has won the

Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil The Tamil Filmfare Best Female Playback Award is given by ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Tamil films. The first Tamil award was given in 2006. However, since 1997 till 2005, a common award for playback was availa ...

and the

Vijay Award for Best Female Playback Singer The Vijay for Best Female Playback Singer is given by STAR Vijay as part of its annual Vijay Awards ceremony for Tamil ( Kollywood) films. The award was first given in 2007. The list Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which t ...

for singing ''"Nenjukkulle"'' from '' Kadal''.

Discography

Filmography

As a dubbing artist

Television

* Vani Rani - 2013 * Singing Stars of

Colors Tamil Colors Tamil is an Indian Tamil-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Viacom 18 on 19 February 2018. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The network's programming consists of Tamil Series, Comedies, y ...

- Judge * Top Singer of Flowers Malayalam- Judge

Awards and nominations

*Won -

- "Nenjukkulle" - '' Kadal'' *Won -

- "Nenjukkulle" - '' Kadal'' *Nominated -

- "Naan Nee" - ''

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

'' *Nominated -

- "Naan Nee" - ''

'' *Nominated - SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil - "Bhoomi Bhoomi" - ''

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam ''Chekka Chivantha Vaanam'' () is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film directed by Mani Ratnam, co-written with Siva Ananth. Produced by Mani Ratnam under the banner Madras Talkies, along with Lyca Productions, the film features an en ...

'' *Nominated- Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Tamil - '' Bhoomi Bhoomi''-

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gopalan, Shakthisree Living people Indian women pop singers 21st-century Indian singers Indian women playback singers Tamil playback singers Bollywood playback singers Indian women songwriters Musicians from Kochi Film musicians from Kerala Indian women jazz singers Indian jazz singers Indian guitarists 21st-century guitarists 1988 births Filmfare Awards South winners 21st-century Indian women singers Women musicians from Kerala 21st-century women guitarists