Shakthisree Gopalan

Shakthisree Gopalan is an Indian vocalist, composer, songwriter and performer, famous for her collaborations with the top south-Indian music composers like A.R. Rahman. Aside from the film music, she is a regular in the independent music scene, performing with various bands over the years dabbling in Pop, R'n'B, trip-hop and jazz.

She has also been performing and releasing music independently in multiple languages.

She is an architect by profession, graduating from School of Architecture and Planning.

Early life and education
Shakthisree Gopalan was brought up in Kochi, Kerala. She did her schooling in Rajagiri Public School, Kalamassery. She moved to Chennai after her school and pursued her degree in architecture at the Anna University's School of Architecture and Planning.

She was trained in Carnatic music for 13 years. During her 11th standard, SS Music conducted Voice Hunt 1. Since she was under 18, it ended with the auditions. Eventually in 2008, she won the second season of SS Music's Voice Hunt. She was first auditioned in November 2008 and got the opportunity to sing her debut song for the film Taxi 4777.

2008–2012: Career beginnings
At the age of 13, Shakthisree Gopalan was already trained in the field of Carnatic music and rock. After having won the "SS Music Voice Hunt " title in the year 2008, Gopalan debuted into film playback in the same year. She was placed third in the Chennai Live's Band hunt. In the year 2014, she performed in MCC (Madras Christian College) cultural fest at Deepwoods and National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli cultural fest Festember, SASTRA University cultural fest Kuruksastra'14, VIT University cultural fest Riviera 14 and Madras Institute of Technology cultural fest Mitafest 15.

"Off the Record" consists of Vikram Vivekanand (Guitar), Satish Narayanan (Bass) and Tapas Naresh/Vinay Ramakrishnan (Drums).

2012–2016: Break and Playback songs
Shakthisree met A R Rahman when she got an assignment to design his music school, K M Music Conservatory. It was around that time she shared the music she had composed with him. That's when she got a break to sing 'Nenjikulle' for the movie Kadal, the first song that she recorded in her career. However, the title track for the composer's Bollywood film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) released first. She also got to jam the unplugged version of her Tamil film song "Nenjukkule" from the film Kadal with A R Rahman. She subsequently went on to record a number of songs for films such as "Irumbukottai Murattu Singham", "Kattradhu Kalavu". She has also been a backlisted vocalist for many A R Rahman compositions.

2016–present: Song releases
She also released 'By Your Side' in December 2016, in which she collaborated with Hari Dafusia, a Toronto-based keyboardist-producer, and Nigel Roopnarine, a bass player. Apart from playback singing for movies, she also collaborated with Prashanth and released an indie single called Begin in November 2017.

She recorded the song Aga Naga for A. R. Rahman in the film Ponniyin Selvan, which was first used as a short background song in the first part of the movie. The song gained immense popularity among the audiences upon release of the first part. The entire song was then released as part of the main soundtrack of the second part.

2024–present: Debut as a composer
She is set to debut as a music composer in January 2024 for the film The Test directed by S. Sashikanth and starring Madhavan, Nayanthara, Siddharth, and Meera Jasmine. Music composer A. R. Rahman announced her debut as music director on Twitter on 4th May 2023.

Cover singer

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Independent Singer

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Playback Singer

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Awards and nominations
She has won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil and the Vijay Award for Best Female Playback Singer for singing "Nenjukkulle" from Kadal.

Following is a list of Awards won by Shakthisree
 * Won – Femina Award-Women of Power
 * Won – Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – "Nenjukkulle" – Kadal
 * Won – Radio Mirchi Music Awards Vocalist of the Year
 * Won – SIIMA Award Best Playback Singer Female Tamil
 * Won – The Pride of Tamil Nadu Award
 * Won – Vijay Award for Best Female Playback Singer – "Nenjukkulle" – Kadal
 * Nominated – Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – "Naan Nee" – Madras
 * Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – "Bhoomi Bhoomi" – Chekka Chivantha Vaanam
 * Nominated – SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – "Bhoomi Bhoomi" – Chekka Chivantha Vaanam
 * Nominated – Vijay Award for Best Female Playback Singer – "Naan Nee" – Madras