Swarnalatha

Swarnalatha (29 April 1973 – 12 September 2010) was an Indian playback singer.

In a career spanning almost 22 years (from 1987 until her death), she recorded over 10,000 songs in many Indian languages, including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, and Badaga.

She is referred to as The Queen Of Tones.

She won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her rendition of the song "Porale Ponnuthayi" from the film Karuththamma.

The song was composed by A. R. Rahman, under whose musical direction she recorded many memorable songs.

She was also the first female playback singer to receive a National Award in A. R. Rahman Music.

She was born in Kerala, to Malayali father K. C. Cherukutty and Tamil mother Kalyani.

Her father was a harmonium player and singer.

Her mother also had interest in music.

Swarnalatha was trained to play harmonium and keyboard.

Swarnalatha's family later moved to Bhadravathi in Shivamogga District, Karnataka where she had her education.

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 recorded a duet with K. J. Yesudas, "Chinnachiru Kiliye" in the film Neethikku Thandanai.

Subsequently, she was approached by many other music directors to record songs under their baton.

She also had the opportunity to work with the director P. Venu.

She was frequently approached by musicians like Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman for their compositions.

She also recorded a few Hindi songs, the most notable one being "Hai Rama Yeh Kya Hua" from the film Rangeela with singer Hariharan.

In Telugu, she recorded more songs under the music direction of Mani Sharma, Ramana Gogula, Raj–Koti, and Vandemataram Srinivas.

They include top-rated songs like Raamma Chilakamma, Osey Ramulamma, and Nizam Babulu.

A. R. Rahman employed 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 or "Porale Ponnuthayi" from Karuthamma as well as Rahman's experimental songs like "Mukkabla" from Kadhalan or "Mottu Vittadha" from Pavithra.

In Kannada, her first song, "Saradara Baa Baalina Sindhoora" was a duet with actor-singer Rajkumar for the film Parashuram in 1989.

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".

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 initially 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, which she considered the best moment in her career.

Television

Swarnalatha appeared as a judge in many television singing competitions, notably in the 2001 Vijay TV reality show and in the 2004 Jaya TV Ragamalika.

Swarnalatha died at Malar Hospitals Ltd Adayar, Chennai at the age of 37, on 12 September 2010.

She had Idiopathic lung disease.

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

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Cinema Express Awards

Government Honour

Recognition

She has sung over 200 songs for Ilayaraja and marked as one of the noted combinations in 90's. 'Povomaa Oorkolam' and 'Nee Yengae Enn Anbae' from the film Chinnathambi were hits.

Government of Tamil Nadu honoured her with the award of Best Singer for the song 'Povomaa Oorkolam'.