Swarnalatha

Swarnalatha
Swarnalatha
Background information
Also known as	The Humming queen of India
Born	29 April 1973 Chittur, Palakkad, Kerala, India
Died	12 September 2010 (aged 37) Chennai, India
Genres	Playback singing, Carnatic music
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instruments	vocals
Years active	1987–2010

Swarnalatha (29 April 1973 – 12 September 2010) was an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning almost twenty-two years (1987-till her death), she recorded over 7,000 songs in many languages including Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi and Badaga.^[1]

She won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her rendition of the song "Porale Ponnuthayi" from the film Karuththamma. The song was composed by A. R. Rahman, under whose musical direction she recorded many memorable songs. Her distinctive voice, which could effortlessly reach high octaves, quickly made her a name to reckon with in the playback music industry.^[2]

Personal life

She was born in the village Kizhakkaepparra near Athikkode near Chittur, Palakkad, Kerala, to K. C. Cherukutty and a Tamil mother, Kalyani. Swarnalatha had several siblings and was the last child in a big family of music lovers. Her father was a harmonium player and singer. Her mother also had an interest in music. Swarnalatha was trained on the harmonium and keyboard.^[3] Swarnalatha's family later moved to Bhadravathi (Paper Town) in Shivamogga District, Karnataka where she had her education.^[4] Surrounded by a family of musicians and music lovers, Swarnalatha took to music when she was in her teens. Her sister Saroja was her first music teacher.

Career

When Swarnalatha was still a child, her family moved to Chennai to seek opportunities in the film industry for her singing talent. The first opportunity came from M. S. Viswanathan in 1987, when she performed a duet with K. J. Yesudas, "Chinnanchirukiliye Kannamma" in the film Neethikku Thandanai.^[4] Subsequently, she was approached by many other music directors to perform songs under their baton. She also had the opportunity to work with director P. Venu. She was recruited by legendary musicians like Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman. She also recorded a few Hindi songs, the most notable one being "Hai Rama Yeh Kya Hua" from the film Rangeela with the singer Hariharan.

In Telugu, she recorded more songs under the music direction of Mani Sharma, Ramana Gogula, Raj-Koti Vandemataram Srinivas. They include the immensely popular songs like Raamma Chilakamma, Osey Ramulamma, and Nizam Babulu.

A.R.Rahman, noting her versatility as a singer and her extraordinary voice, used Swarnalatha for many of his songs. She was one of the most versatile singers of her times, as she was able to sing melodies like "Maalayil Yaaro Manathodu Pesa" from Sathriyan^[2] or "Porale Ponnuthayi" from Karuthamma as well as Rahman's experimental songs like "Mukkabla" from Kadhalan or "Mottu Vittadha" from Pavithra. Swarnalatha was the first female playback singer to fetch the National Award under A. R. Rahman's music direction. She received the award for the song "Porale Ponnuthayi". Once in an interview, she said that she was moved to tears when she finished the recording of this song and received praise from A. R. Rahman. She recorded many songs with music directors Deva, Vidyasagar, Harris Jayaraj, Anu Malik, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Raj-Koti, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Mani Sharma, Hamsalekha and many others. She recorded all the songs originally rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and Shamshad Begum for the Tamil movie Anarkali (the dubbed version of the Hindi movie Mughal-e-Azam) and was praised by the Bollywood music director Naushad Ali. Once during an interview, the interviewer Setu asked her what the best moment of her life had been, expecting her to talk about receiving the National Award. But nobody had expected her to say that the best moment of her life had been when she received the kudos from the legendary Hindi film music director Naushad Ali ji for her rendition of the songs in Anarkali. Being a non-native Hindi speaker, her pronunciation in Hindi songs was noted as exceptional unlike other prominent singers from South India who had recorded songs in the language.

Death

Swarnalatha died at a private hospital in Chennai at the age of 37 due to cardiac arrest. She was admitted to the hospital after she collapsed on stage while performing, to the shock of the audience. She had been suffering from an interstitial lung disease (lung infection). The singer had been undergoing treatment for the infection for over a year and had not recorded for films after she fell ill.^[1] However, she had been performing at some small-scale concerts and her death occurred at such an event.

Awards and recognitions

She received the National Award from the Government of India when she was just 21 years old. She also a four-time recipient of the Cinema Express Awards.

National Award (Silver Lotus Award)-(Rajat Kamal)

• 1994 – National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Porale Ponnuthayi" from Karuththamma^[5]

Tamil Nadu State Awards

• 1991 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for "Povomma Oorkolam" from Chinna Thambi^[5]
• 1994 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for "Porale Ponnuthayi" from Karuththamma^[5]
• 2000 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for "Evano oruvan" from Alaipayuthey^[5]

Cinema Express Awards

• 1991 – Best Female Playback Singer for "Povomma Oorkolam" from Chinna Thambi^[6]
• 1995 – Best Female Playback Singer for "Muquala Muqapala" from Kadhalan
• 1996 – Best Female Playback Singer for "Akkadannu nanga" from Indian
• 1999 – Best Female Playback Singer for "Ulunthu vidaikayile" from Mudhalvan

Government Awards

• 1994– Kalaimamani Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu for her contributions towards Tamil music.
• 1995– Nandi Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh for her contributions towards Telugu music.

Other awards

• 2002 – The song "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu" from the movie Thalapathi (1991) was among the songs listed in a BBC World Top Ten music poll. It was performed by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Swarnalatha^[7]

Film songs

References

External links

• Swarnalatha on IMDb