Rahul Nambiar

Rahul Nambiar (Malayalam: രാഹുൽ നമ്പ്യാർ) is an Indian playback singer and live performer. An MBA and M.Com-graduate, he won the Swapthaswarangal show in 2001 and began singing live. He later ventured into playback singing, performing for many leading South Indian film composers in various languages, while also launching an independent band named Rahlaap with bass player Aalap Raju.

Career

Rahul hails from Kannur, Kerala and was brought up in Delhi and Chennai. After completing his MBA and M.Com, Rahul started working for two years in a bank, which he felt was too "monotonous", before performing at live shows with Sunitha Sarathy. In 2001, he won the Sun TV Sapthaswarangal contest, beating 3000 contestants, following which he decided to pursue a singing career. Rahul was introduced as a playback singer by Vijay Antony in the Tamil film Dishyum.

In 2009, Rahul joined hands with his longtime friend and bass player Aalap Raju to form a band named RAHLAAP. The duo released their a self-titled album in Hindi language based on "Music beyond genres", on which they had worked for four years. He is considered a versatile singer, having sung in various genres such as Western, Carnatic, light music and hip-hop. Rahul has performed more than 400 live shows around India and abroad, and over 350 songs for films, most prominent ones being Mani Sharma's "Vasantha Mullai" (Pokkiri),Yuvan Shankar Raja's "Adada Mazhada" (Paiyaa) which fetched him his first Filmfare nomination for the Best Male Playback Singer Award,. In 2012, he won his first Filmfare award in the Best Male Playback Singer Award category for Thaman's "Guruvaram" song (Dookudu). He has also lent his voice for several ad jingles.