Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963) is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician.
In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs in various Indian languages, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French.
She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration with music composers like A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, Hamsalekha, M. M. Keeravani and with the playback singers K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam over the years.
Chithra was born 27 July 1963 in the city of Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram) of the Kerala state.
Her father, Krishnan Nair was a school teacher and a music enthusiast who taught basics of music to all his three children.
1978
She was selected for the National Talent Search Scholarship from the Government of India during the period 1978 - 1984.
1979
K. S. Chithra was introduced to Malayalam playback by M. G. Radhakrishnan in 1979 who recorded her voice for films and private albums.
Attahasam, Snehapoorvam Meera and Njan Ekananu were the first few films in which she recorded her voice.
She also performed live concerts with K. J. Yesudas in India and abroad.
1985
Her first Kerala State Film Award for Best Singer was for the song "Poomaname" from the film Nirakkoottu (1985) composed by Shyam.
Since then, she has earned wide recognition by singing popular songs under the compositions of Raveendran, Shyam, S. P. Venkitesh, Mohan Sithara, Salil Chowdhury, Kannur Rajan, Ilaiyaraaja, Johnson, Ouseppachan, M. K. Arjunan, A. T. Ummer, Berny Ignatius, M. B. Sreenivasan, Mohan Sithara, Vidyasagar, Ramesh Narayan, Sharreth, M. Jayachandran and Deepak Dev.
She is regarded as "Nightingale of Kerala (Vanambadi)" and recorded many successful songs in Malayalam.
She recorded a number of songs for the composer S. P. Venkitesh and her maximum duet songs in Malayalam are with K. J. Yesudas and M. G. Sreekumar.
Chithra's first Telugu song was "Paadalenu Pallavaina" from the dubbed version of Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi (1985) composed by Ilaiyaraaja, later sang a humming in a song sung by K. J. Yesudas composed by K. V. Mahadevan for the picture Pralayam (1985).
1986
He passed away after a long battle with cancer on 18 July 1986.
Her mother Shanthakumari was also a music teacher.
She has an elder sister, K. S. Beena who is a former singer and younger brother K. S. Mahesh who is a musician.
Chithra completed her schooling at the Cotton Hill Government Girls High School in Thiruvananthapuram.
She acknowledges that it was the teachers of the school who spotted her talent in music.
Chithra received her training in Carnatic music from K. Omanakutty for seven years.
She graduated in B.A. in music with first class and third rank from the University of Kerala.
The song "Manjal Prasadavum" from the film Nakhakshathangal (1986) composed by Bombay Ravi got her the second National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer.
Her first song in a Telugu film is "Gelupu Maade" from Vijrumbhana (1986), composed by K. Chakravarthy.
Later went on to sing songs to many Telugu composers like Sathyam, Raj-Koti, Ilaiyaraja, K. V. Mahadevan & K. Chakravarthy for the years 1986–88, but she gained initial recognition/break-through for compositions by Ilaiyaraja like "Jallanta Kavvinta" from Geethanjali (1989) & “Ninnukori Varnam“ from Gharshana( 1988) and then went onto sing several songs to many composers in Telugu.
It was from then onwards that she became a notable singer in Telugu and went on to record every other song in each album being the solo card female singer for almost all the films in the 90s.
1989
For the same composer, she sang the song "Indupushpam Choodi Nilkum" for the film Vaishali (1989) and won her third National Film Award.
1990
It was the moment where she established herself as a well recognized singer and strengthening her position in Telugu films by almost taking the place of S. Janaki from 1990.
1991
Chithra received her first Nandi Award, presented by Government of Andhra Pradesh for "Kalika Chilakala Koliki" from Seetharamayya Gari Manavaralu (1991).
She won a total of 11 Nandi Awards as Best Female Playback Singer for various Telugu songs.
As the years passed by Chithra was recognized as a legendary singer in Telugu whose era or legacy was considered to be the golden era standing next to P. Susheela and S. Janaki.
1995
Her song "Kannalane/Kehna Hi Kya" from the film Bombay (1995) was included in United Kingdom The Guardian "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear Before You Die" list.
2001
She is cited as the Golden Voice of India by world's Prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London in 2001 and Melody Queen of Indian Cinema by Radio Mirchi, The Times Group in 2016.
Barring Lata Mangeshkar, she also remains the second female playback singer from India to have performed at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London in 2001 and her Performance was applauded with much appreciation by a roomful of an international audience.
2009
In 2009, She became the first Indian artist to be honoured by Government of China while performing live at the Qinghai International river festival.
2017
As of 2017, she has won the Kerala State Awards for the record 16 times.
Her latest song "Theerame" from the movie Malik (2021) became another awesome hit in Malayalam Music Industry.
2018
She is honoured with the title First Ladies by the President of India in 2018 for being the first Indian woman to be honoured by British Parliament at House of Commons, United Kingdom in 2003.
People of India fondly called her as Little Nightingale of Indian Cinema.
Chithra is a recipient of six National Film Awards, nine Filmfare Awards South and 36 different state film awards from six states of India such as 16 Kerala State Film Awards, 11 Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards, 4 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, 3 Karnataka State Film Awards, 1 Orissa State Film Awards, 1 West Bengal State Film Awards.
She was awarded India's third-highest civilian honours Padma Bhushan in 2021 and Padma Shri in 2005 for her valuable contributions towards the Indian musical fraternity.
