Role: Carnatic Musician and Playback singer
Birth
Nithyasree was born on 25th August 1973 to Iswaran Sivakumar and Lalitha Sivakumar. She was the granddaughter of the famous Carnatic Musician D.K.Pattammal.
Personal Life
Nithyasree married a Mechanical Engineer V.Mahadevan. She has two daughters Tanujasree and Tejasree. Her husband died in the year 2012.
Singing career of Nithyasree
In her early age, Nithyasree learnt the music from her mother Lalitha Sivakumar. Nithyasree gave her first public Carnatic performance, at the 14th age on 10th August 1987. The Youth Association For Classical Music organized this one hour concert.
For the “Papanasam Sivan- A Legend”, she made two thematic albums with new compositions. In 1994, Nithyasree gave a concert with 17 compositions for a duration of 3 hours. In 1999, the Charsur Digital Workstation made the release of her album that had the Ragam Tanam Pallavi in ragas. She gave a paper presentation on Life career and Contribution of Gopalakrishna Bharathi at the Music Department of PSG College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore.
Nithyasree had given her performance in all famous Sabhas in India. She gave concerts in many foreign countries like Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Tanzania, Switzerland, Sri Lanka and so on.
Playback singing
In 1998, Nithyasree became a playback singer for the Tamil film Jeans, after she got the invitation to sing a film song from the Music Director A.R.Rahman. She sang the song “Kannodu Kaanbadadhellam” for this film, which became the popular song. In the same year, she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer.
After this, Nithyasree sang more film songs under the music direction of A.R.Rahman like “MinsaraKanna” in Padayappa and “SowkiyamaKannae” in the film Sangamam. In 2001, she sang the song “ManmathaMaasam” for the movie ParthaleParavasam. After the release of “Introducing A.R Rahman” in 2006, these songs captured in the digital stores.
In 2002, she sang the song “OruNadhiOruPournami” in the movie Samurai. Later in 2004, she gave her voice for the song “Kumbakonam Sandhayile” in the movie New. Her song “KanaKaangiren” in the movie Ananda Thandaavam and “ThaaiThindraMannae” in the movie AyirathilOruvan got the release in 2010.
Singing in other languages
Apart from Tamil, Nithyasree had sung many songs in other languages. She sang “RaaRaa” for the Kannada movie Apthamithra under the music of Gurukiran in 2004 and “Vaarai” for the Telugu dubbed movie Chandramukhi under the music of Vidyasagar in 2005. For the Malayalam film Arike in 2012, she sang the song “VaruvayiThozhi” under the music Direction of Ouseppachan.
Other roles of Nithyasree Mahadevan
Nithyasree has made the background compositions for the album recordings and music composition for many songs. She was one of the singers, who sang the song “SemmozhiyaanaThamizhMozhiyaam” song for the World Classical Tamil Conference in 2010. For this, she came before the screen after the famous musician Aruna Sayeeram.
International Tours
Other than giving concerts in India, Nithyasree has given concerts in the foreign countries. She has given singing performances in France, United States of America, Canada, Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, Tanzania, New Zealand, Australia and others.
Special Performances of Nithyasree
In remembrance of the 50th year of Indian Independence, Nithyasree gave several concerts. Out of which, she appeared with her grandmother D.K.Pattammal in few performances. Nithyasree gave a concert with full of Bhairavi raga’s compositions set, similar to her grandmother. She made the popularization of the compositions of Gopalakrishna Bharathi. Her release of about 750 albums, on various topics are hugely famous among her fans.
TV shows
In 1993, Nithyasree came as a guest judge in Sun TV’s Sapthaswarangal. Then she had been the guest judge in several judges of Zee Tamil’s SaReGaMaPa 2009 Challenge. After this, she took the role of the judge in seasons 2,3 and 4 of Airtel Super Singer Junior, seasons 3,4 and 5 of Airtel Super Singer.
She was one of the Permanent judges in the Raj TV’s Carnatic music show, TanishqSwarnaSangeetham in 2014.She recorded the title songs for many Tamil TV serials like Chithi and MettiOli. Her other serials include Krishnadasi, Arasi, Mythili, Uravugal, Kanchana, Engiruntho Vandhaal, Kakka Kakka and Anni. She had sung for several Advertisements in Tamil language.
Nithyasree won the Best Concert Award from the Madras Music Academy for six years. She was the member of the Expert Committee panel in the “IYAL ISAI NATAKA MANDRAM”. She is one of the “Top Rank” musicians of Akashvani and All India Radio in Chennai.
Awards for Nithyasree
Nithyasree had won the first prize in the National level AIR music composition in 1990. In 1994, she got the Innisai Mamani title from the Tamil Nadu Goodwill and Welfare Association. In the same year, she won the National Unity Centre Award. In 1996, she won the M.L Vasanthakumari Memorial Award from the Mylapore Academy. Later in 1999, she got the “Gaanaamrutha Vaani” title form the All Ceylon Hindu Congress in Colombo. She won the Kannadasan Award in the same year.
In 2000, she won the honourable “Kalaimamani” award from the Tamil Nadu State Government. Then the “Kanchi Kamakoti Peedam” gave her the “Sangeetha Parambarya Rathna” award in 2002. In the same year, she won the Sivaji Award. She got the Tamil Isai Vani title from the Dubai Tamil Kudumbam in 2006. Later, the Sathyabama Autonomous University in Chennai gave her the Honorary Doctorate of Literature in 2008. In the same year, she got the “Isai Kalai Tharakai” from the Canberra Music Association.
In 2011, she won P.Obul Reddy Award of Excellence from the Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan. The TamilNadu Brahmins Association (TAMBRAS) gave her the Award of Proficiency in 2012. Later in 2014, she got the Isai Selvam Award from the Karunanidhi(former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) in Chennai. In 2017, she got the “Tamil Isai Thilagam” title from the NewYork Tamil Sangam. Apart from all these honors, Nithyasree has got many titles from several Music sabhas.