Sooraj Santhosh

Sooraj Santhosh (born September 19, 1987) is an Indian singer, songwriter, producer, and composer. He straddles the worlds of independent music and playback singing, moving smoothly between the two. Sooraj is the recipient of a Kerala State Film Award (2016), 2 Mirchi Music Awards, and a Kerala State Film Critics Award (2021). He has sung around 300 songs in 8 languages.

Sooraj released his independent solo EP, The Gypsy Sun, in 2020. It's a multi-genre, multi-lingual album that consists of 5 songs.

Sooraj was the lead singer and has composed and performed with Masala Coffee until 2019, when he decided to dedicate more time to his own creative endeavors. Now he performs with his own band, Sooraj Santhosh Live.

Early life
Sooraj was born on September 19, 1987, in Kerala, India. His was not a musical family. His father Santhosh Kumar worked for the Forest Department, and his mother Jayakumari was a teacher. Neither they nor their extended family had any musical connections. It was the music teacher in Sooraj's mother's school who identified his affinity to music when he was 5 yrs old. She taught him a song that he sang beautifully. It was on her advice that Sooraj's parents took this seriously and enrolled him at the age of 6 in Tharanganisari School of Music founded by Dr. K. J. Yesudas. His initial years at that institution were difficult since he was thrown abruptly into the midst of senior singers. As a child he struggled to understand what was happening and what was expected of him. But he gamely stuck on with the constant encouragement of his mother who ensured that he attended classes regularly. Sooraj has also been under the tutelage of Prof K. Omanakutty, Kollam G.S Balamurali, and Parvathipuram Padmanabha Iyer.

Sooraj completed his High School and Higher Secondary level education in Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram. In High School he participated and won prizes in School Youth Festivals and State Youth Festivals. He graduated in commerce from Mahatma Gandhi College, Trivandrum, and did his Post-Graduation in Commerce from Mar Ivanious College, Trivandrum. While in college he took part in National University Youth Festivals and won prizes consistently.

One of the programs he participated was a musical competition on Surya TV where the renowned flautist Kudamaloor Janardanan was one of the main judges. Each performance was followed by a host of questions from the judges on music and its intricacies. It was an interesting format and Sooraj went on to win the competition. It was after this that he started learning music from Shri Kudamaloor Janardanan. That opened a new world for him. He realized that there was so much more to music than taking part and winning in competitions. This is the moment that opened his mind to the world of music, and he became fascinated with the magic of music. The doubts that kept cropping up constantly in his mind were being resolved, and he had found someone who could provide clarity.

Sooraj went on to perform vocal concerts in his home-town Trivandrum.

Career
After completing his Post Graduation, Sooraj moved to Chennai where he felt he could focus more on his music. His entry into playback singing was completely unexpected. While in college he had auditioned for the renowned composer G. V. Prakash Kumar, and after two years he got a call for a recording. It was the song Inkaa Etho for the movie Darling (2010 film) which released in 2010. This song got him the Best Upcoming Singer award from Radio Mirchi that year. More opportunities came his way to work with various composers in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. In 2010, Sooraj accompanied his mentor and guru Shri Kudamaloor Janardhanan for a fusion ensemble at the Kovalam Literature Festival, where he was the sole singer in the group.

In 2012 he sang with the Austrian rock band Ashram Oriental Rock, a 7-member Indo-Austrian band. He accompanied them on their European tour in 2011. They travelled across Europe in a unique initiative to perform within prisons.

In 2014, Sooraj became the part of the band Masala Coffee. He was their front man and he also produced music for the band. They performed in innumerable venues, both nationally and internationally. Sooraj along with Masala Coffee scored music for two films – Uriyadi, and Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal. In 2019, Sooraj bid adieu to the band and started on his own path to create the music he had always wanted to.

All this while, Sooraj was simultaneously singing playback, and sang for some of the major composers in South India like Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, D. Imman, Charan Raj (composer), G. V. Prakash Kumar, Devi Sri Prasad, Thaman, Bijibal, Gopi Sundar, Jassie Gift, Vivek Sagar, Vishnu Vijay, Shaan Rahman, Justin Varghese, Sushin Shyam, Justin Prabhakaran, Rex Vijayan to name a few.

In 2016 he was awarded the Kerala State Film Award for Best Playback Singer for the song ‘Thaniye’, composed by Vishnu Vijay for the film Guppy.

Sooraj's first international project was with Sri Ganesh B Kumar and the European Chamber Choir. He performed the Shanmukha Kavacham in Germany along with the Choir and worked closely with Mr Nicol Matt, the popular new age German composer. Sooraj is the first male Indian singer to perform with the Chamber Choir of Europe. It is the world's first Choral composition from India, that's now a part of the Western Classical Choral repertoire.

Independent Music
In 2019, Sooraj started work on his solo independent EP, The Gypsy Sun, which had five songs in it. It's a multi-lingual album with tracks in Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. The songs were released in 2020 -22. He collaborated with musicians from across genres for this, like the hiphop artist Insanoid, music producer Varkey, and the renowned singer Sayanora.

Over the years Sooraj has collaborated with several independent artists across geographies and genres.

Meanwhile, Sooraj has been producing his own songs, one of which was the thought-provoking single titled Aalayal Thara Veno. This song questioned many regressive and backward-looking ideas that were existing unchallenged and unchanged in a popular folk song. Sooraj's song was welcomed by the youth and accepted wholeheartedly. However, he had to face a lot of backlash from certain sections of society who found it difficult to accept the need to question existing beliefs even if they were problematic. It was a very challenging period for the artist, since a lot of online attacks were vicious and turned very personal.

Sooraj Santhosh Live
In 2016 Sooraj formed his own five-piece band called Sooraj Santhosh Live. He performs across national and international venues with his band, where he primarily presents his own compositions, along with the songs he has sung playback in films. Sooraj also showcases the musical pieces and compositions of artists and composers whose works resonate with him. The core idea behind Sooraj Santhosh Live is to communicate with an audience and perform what Sooraj as an artist would like to convey.

Theatre
Sooraj's initial foray into the world of theatre was as an actor when he attended a workshop with Janabheri. They are a theatre group based in Shoranur, who have made a mark in the contemporary theatre scene through their unique theatre productions. Later in 2022, Sooraj composed and produced music for Thaaram (The Dismissed Shadow), a Janabheri Production that explored new possibilities in interpreting the current socio-political realities.

Thaaram (The Dismissed Shadow) was performed across venues in Kerala, including the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy Theatre Festival, and Rangaprabhath Theatre Festival.

In February 2023, Thaaram was one of the entries selected for the International Theatre Festival in Bodoland.

Masala Coffee
Sooraj Santhosh was the former lead vocalist of Masala Coffee, which made its debut on Kappa TV's Music Mojo. The band composed the soundtrack for the Tamil movie, Uriyadi, co-produced by Nalan Kumarasamy. They composed the title track and featured in a promo video for the Malayalam movie, Hello Namasthe. Masala Coffee performed at the RAAG 'N' ROCK Indie Music Festival at Al Nasr Leisureland, Dubai, on September 11, 2015, releasing their first music video titled 'Aalayaal Tharam Venam', in 2016. In November 2019, Masala Coffee announced that they were cordially parting ways with Sooraj, so the latter could pursue a promising solo music career. Sooraj made his independent band latter which came to know as Sooraj Santhosh Live

His first song ′Inka Etho′ composed by G.V Prakash for the Telugu Darling won him the Mirchi Music Awards South conducted by Radio Mirchi for the Best Upcoming Singer in Telugu (2010). "A Special program on the Mirchi Music Awards hosted to felicitate all the singers and musicians of South India" Sooraj made his debut in Malayalam with the song ′Ee Ramayanakkootil′ in the film Second Show. Music was composed by Nikhil Rajan starring Dulquar Salman.

Sooraj made his entry into the Tamil film industry by singing ′Uyirin Suvaril′ and ′Vegam vegam′ in the movie Sridhar (2012)for which music was composed by Rahul Raj. He got his break with a duet song ′Yamma Yamma′ in All in All Azhagu Raja (2013) with Shreya Ghoshal, music composed by S. Thaman. ′Othakadai othakadai′ and ′Yaelley Yaelley′ from the film Pandiya Naadu (2013) composed by D. Imman are other Tamil songs. His recent song ′Madai Thirandhathu′ was for music director M M Sreelekha in the film Kaadhal Solla Aasai.

He has been nominated in the category of Best Upcoming Vocalist (Male) in Malayalam (2013) by Music Mirchi Awards, for his rendition of the song 'Iniyum Nin Mounam' for the movie KQ.

He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Thaniye Mizhikal" from the film Guppy. He also won the Janbhumi film awards 2017 and SIIMA 2017.

Solo album
The Gypsy Sun

Sooraj is working on his debut solo album, which is a multilingual album consists of 6 songs, Recently he released one among them. ‘Thani Malayalam’ which has wooed the audience with its unique theme and offbeat composition. The song's genesis is rooted in Sooraj's love for language. The Music Video features eminent personalities from Malayalam literature, culture, art and cinema like M T Vasudevan Nair, Sara Joseph, Benyamin, Nedumudi Venu, Peeshapilly Rajeevan, Artist Bhattathiri, Methil Devika, Peruvanam Kuttan Marar, Ramachandra Pulavar.

Awards
Kerala State Film Awards

2016: Best Male Playback Singer - 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy

Other Awards

2010: Mirchi Music Awards South, Best Upcoming Singer (Telugu) - 'Inka Etho', Darling

2017: Janmabhumi Film Awards, Best Playback Singer - 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy

2017: SIIMA, Best Playback Singer (Malayalam)- 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy
 * 2018: Mirchi Music Awards South, Mirchi Music Awards South