Harini

Biography

Harini (born 30 April 1979) is an Indian film playback and classical singer born and raised in Chennai. She sings predominantly in Tamil films, besides other language films such as Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada films. She was first noticed by music director A. R. Rahman at a school competition where she was one among the winners. Eventually, she was signed in to record the song "Nila Kaigiradhu" for the film Indira (1995) when she was 15. The song went on to become one of the popular songs of the year and Harini began to get singing offers from other leading film composers.
Harini has won Best Female Playback Singer award twice at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for the songs "Manam Virumbuthey" (Nerukku Ner, 1997) and "Aalanguyil Koovum Rayil" (Parthiban Kanavu, 2003). The latter song won her ITFA Best Female Playback Award for the year 2004.

Early life

Born on 30 April 1979 to a Tamil family, Harini learnt Carnatic music from Gowri and Radha Viswanathan from the age of four. She used to participate in school competitions and in one such competition which she won, A. R. Rahman who distributed the prizes invited the winners to his studio to record their voices. Subsequently, she was called by Suhasini Maniratnam to sing "Nila Kaigirathu" for her first film Indira. Her first song, "Nila Kaigirathu", was recorded at the age of 15. Since then, she has received offers from various music directors across South India. Within a career spanning a decade, she sang over 3500 songs four south Indian languages in which 35 devotional albums in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

Personal life

Harini is married to singer Tippu. A strong believer and follower of Sathya Sai Baba, Tippu married Harini in Puttaparthi when they both were 22 years. They have a daughter named Sai Smriti and son, Sai Abhyankkar, who made his singing debut with the single "Katchi Sera" in 2024.

Television songs

Punnagai - 1997
Kolangal - 2003
Hello Shyamala- 2018

Awards and recognitions

Harini has been the recipient of several popular awards in the singing category. Some of her awards are as listed below:

2003 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for Aalanguyil (Parthiban Kanavu)
1997 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for Manam Virumbuthe (Nerukku Ner)
2004 – ITFA Best Female Playback Award
2000 – Silver Screen MGR Award (in Singapore)
1999 – Pace Award
1998 – Roja Award
1997 – Madras Cultural Academy Awards