About this Artist

Shankar Mahadevan is among the greatest Indian vocalists alive, having risen to fame in Mumbai’s fabled Bollywood film industry as a composer, playback singer, and member of the famed Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy composing team. He sang from his earliest days, but then diverted into a career as a software engineer. In 1998, he ventured into music and released his first album, Breathless (so named because the title song was written as though it was to be sung in one breath). This quickly brought him to the attention of Bollywood, and he soon became the singing voice of every Tamil hero. He won the first of his many awards for his film music collaboration with legendary director A.R. Rahman, then proceeded to win multiple National Film Awards. As time went on, he found his own compositional voice, and he has since become the leading composer in Indian film music, selling millions of records every year. In 2012, he was invited by UNESCO and the U.S. State Department to perform at the United Nations for the finale of the International Jazz Festival. He previously worked with Zakir Hussain as the vocalist in Remember Shakti quintet.