Hariharan (singer)

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Hariharan
Background information
Born	3 April 1955 (age 58) Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala,India
Genres	Ghazal, filmi
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1977–present
Associated acts	Colonial Cousins, Leslie Lewis

Hariharan born 3 April 1955) is an Indian playback singer who has sung for Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Telugu films, an established ghazal singer, and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. His melody is strongly appreciated by the film fraternity. 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 Leslie 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 [edit]

Born in Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram) he grew up in Mumbai in a Tamil Iyer family, and has bachelor degrees in science and law. 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 and Jagjit Singh, 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 everyday. The committed Hariharan also put heart and soul into learning Urdu when he decided to become a ghazal singer.