
Photo: President's Secretariat · GODL-India · credits
Naresh Iyer
Person · male · India · Mumbai · born 1981
Indian singer
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Also known as நரேஷ் ஐயர் · Нареш Айер
Timeline
1980s
2000s
Biography
Biography
Naresh Iyer (born 3 January 1981), known mononymously as Naresh, is an Indian playback singer. Born in Mumbai, Iyer is fluent in Tamil, Hindi and Marathi. Although his actual hometown was rumoured to be in Vadalur, Neyveli. Naresh Iyer has rendered 2000 film songs in several Indian languages and has several chart hits to his credit. His rendition of "Roobaroo" from the movie Rang De Basanti composed by A. R. Rahman topped the music charts for many weeks in 2006 and won him the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He won the Filmfare award in the R.D. Burman Musical Talent category.
Early life
Naresh Iyer was born to a Tamil family Shankar Iyer and Radha on 3 January 1981 and brought up in Matunga, Mumbai. He has a younger sister named Nisha Iyer, who is an upcoming self-taught Professional Artist. He attended SIES College of Commerce and Economics where he received his Degree in Commerce. After graduation he intended to become a Chartered Accountant and was practicing CA and side by side was learning Carnatic music and Hindustani classical music too.
Career
Naresh was spotted by composer A. R. Rahman in a reality talent show, Channel V's Super Singer. Though he did not win the show, Naresh was later contacted by A. R. Rahman and made his debut with the song "Mayilirage" from Anbe Aaruyire. He has also sung for other composers in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam.
Naresh is also the vocalist of a Mumbai based fusion band called Dhvani.
He also won the R.D. Burman Award as the best male upcoming singer.
The same year he also won the National Award for Best Playback Singer(Male) for his rendition of "Rubaroo" from the movie "Rang De Basanti".
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 8 | 49.7th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | 10,566,056 | 42.2th |
| Release groups in DB | 0 | 0th |
| Studio albums | 0 | 0th |
| Awards recorded | 4 | 96.3th |
| Timeline events | 2 | 62.1th |
| Recording span (years) | — | no data |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (0 release groups)
No discography rows stored yet
MusicBrainz enrichment for this artist is still pending. Release groups appear here once it runs.
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Naresh Iyer head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 8 | 49.7th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | 10,566,056 | 42.2th |
| Release groups in DB | 0 | 0th |
| Studio albums | 0 | 0th |
| Awards recorded | 4 | 96.3th |
| Timeline events | 2 | 62.1th |
| Recording span (years) | — | no data |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer | won | |
| 2006 | National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer | won | |
| — | Filmfare Awards South | won | |
| — | Filmfare Awards South | won |
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · GODL-India · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pratibha_Devisingh_Patil_presenting_the_Best_Male_Playback_Singer_Award_for_the_year_2005_to_Shri_Naresh_Iyerl%2C_in_RNAG_DE_BASANTI%2C_for_his_melodious_rendering_of_a_lilting_song_%E2%80%9CROO_BA_ROO%E2%80%9D.jpgpopularity—kworb.net · no licence published · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://kworb.net/spotify/listeners.htmlaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/18096377-327a-490e-a8d2-cee1c7979d61discography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/18096377-327a-490e-a8d2-cee1c7979d61core—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3635484seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naresh_Iyerbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naresh_Iyer
Why this artist is in the database
- List of Indian playback singers — rank #110
Naresh Iyer | 2005–present | Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada
- Spotify monthly listeners (kworb.net) — rank #1200 · 10,566,056
Naresh Iyer
Tier rule: notable long tail (listeners 10,566,056, 8 language versions)
Image: President's Secretariat · GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q3635484 · MusicBrainz: 18096377-327a-490e-a8d2-cee1c7979d61
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