Swarnalatha

She was born in Kerala, to K. C. Cherukutty and Kalyani. Her father was a harmonium player and singer. Her mother also had interest in music. Her mother tongue was Malayalam. Swarnalatha was trained to play harmonium and keyboard.[3] Swarnalatha's family later moved to Bhadravathi (Paper Town) in Shivamogga District, Karnataka where she had her education.[4] She started singing at the age of 3. Surrounded by a family of musicians and music lovers, Swarnalatha was trained in Carnatic and Hindustani music. Her sister Saroja was her first music teacher.

Swarnalatha's 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, "Chinnachiru Kiliye" 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.

Swarnalatha died at a private hospital in Chennai at the age of 37, on 12 September 2010. She had been suffering from Idiopathic lung disease. And in her final funeral rally, "Pooraley Ponnuthayi" Song was played.

She received the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer from the Government of India, when she was just 21 years old.

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

• 1994– National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Porale Ponnuthayi" from Karuththamma " for her extraordinarily compassionate song upon which much of the crucial dramatic action in the film is enacted. " [5]

Tamil Nadu State Film 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 Honour

• 1994– Kalaimamani Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu for her contributions towards Tamil 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]

• Swarnalatha on IMDb