Hariharan (singer)
Hariharan (born April 3, 1955) is an Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Tamil and Hindi movies. He has also sung many songs in other languages including Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Telugu films. He is an established ghazal singer and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. In 2004, he was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India and is a two-time National Award winner.
Hariharan, associating with Lesle Lewis, formed Colonial Cousins, a two-member band. They have cut many private music albums and also scored music for few feature films in Tamil cinema and Bollywood cinema.
Early life
Born in Trivandrum, Kerala, to Tamil parents, Hariharan grew up in Mumbai and has bachelor's degrees in science and law. He is fluent in speaking Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and English. He did his collegiate studies from S.I.E.S. College. The son of renowned Carnatic vocalists, Shrimati Alamelu and the late H.A.S. Mani (full name:Anantha Subramani Iyer), he inherited his parents' musical talents. Alamelu was Hariharan's first guru (mentor). From her, he picked up Carnatic music skills. He was also exposed to Hindustani music from a young age. In his teens, inspired by the songs of Mehdi Hassan , Hariharan developed a passion for ghazals and started training in Hindustani music from Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. He used to put in thirteen hours of singing practice every day.
