My favourite singer is
Illayaraaja, 68. His real name is Gnanadesikan and was born on the 3rd of June 1943 in Panaipuram,Theni District,
Tamil Nadu. He is an Indian film singer, composer, lyricist,instrumentalist,song writer, conductor, music director and film producer mainly in the Tamil film industry. So far he has composed approximately over
4500 songs and provided film score for more than
950 Indian films in various languages in his career spanning more than
30 years. His background scoring for Indian films is very wide and his songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many Indian films. In certain circumstances, even tough the storyline of the movie seem to be quite a lousy one, his songs in the movie still become hit. He is known to be and remain as one of the
most popular and capable composers in the
South Indian Film Industry. He has been a prominent composer of film music in South Indian Cinema since the
late 70s. Although his works are mostly for Tamil film, he has also scored music for Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam and Hindi film industries. He
integrated folk lyricism in Tamil and
introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the
South Indian Musical mainstream. In 1993, he became the
first Asian to compose a
full symphony performed by the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's Walthamstow Town Hall. He is also a
gold medallist in classical guitar, from Trinity College of Music, London. Besides, in 2003, according to a
BBC international poll,his composition
"Rakkama kaiye thathu" song from the movie
Thalapathi,1991 was being voted from people from 155 countries and it was the fourth in the
world's top 10 most popular songs of all time. He was also
nominated in the best Indian album Music Awards category at US based
Just Plain Folks Music Organization, which is the largest grass root music organization in the world, and
stood third for his "Music Journey: Live in Italy". During the period of
millennium, he started composing a variety of non-film music,including
devotional and religious songs,an oratorio and world music whilst shifting his focus to Malayalam films. He is labelled or referred as
Isaingani which means
"a man with great knowledge in music" or as
The Maestro. He has won
four Indian National Film Awards, three for Best Music Direction and one for Best Background Score and a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bushan Award from the government of India. I am very much in love deeply with Illayaraaja's song ever since I was young. Personally I think that he has been gifted with
golden voice. Most of my friends call me an out-dated person for being his fan but, I am never bothered about that. I listen to a lot of old songs especially in the the time line of
70s-90s.Even now he is still active in this field. Listening to his composition and voice make me feel great all the times and whenever my mood is not so promising, his songs help me to get better. I listen to his songs almost every day until this moment of my life. He is the best one for me regardless of the trend people are so carried away to follow, I prefer to stick with
my favourite one,
The One and Only Isaingani Illayaraaja always.
