KK (singer)

KK
KK in Jan 2013
Background information
Birth name	Krishnakumar Kunnath
Also known as	KK, Kay Kay, K. K.
Born	(1968-08-23) 23 August 1968 New Delhi
Genres	playback singing
Occupations	Singer, composer
Instruments	Vocal
Years active	1996–present
Website	www.themesmerizer.com

Krishnakumar Kunnath (born August 23, 1968), popularly known as KK or K. K., is an Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil films.^[1]

Born in Delhi to Malayali parents C. S. Nair and Kanakavalli,^[2] Krishnakumar Kunnath was brought up in New Delhi.^[3] KK sang 3,500 jingles before Bollywood break. An alumnus of Delhi's Mount St. Mary school.^[4] He appeared in "Josh Of India" song for the support of Indian Cricket Team during Cricket World Cup 1999.^[5] Following this, he released an album called Pal for which he received a Star Screen Award for the Best Solo Album.^[6]

Personal life

KK married his childhood sweetheart Jyothi in 1991.^[7] His son Nakul sang a song "Masti" from his latest album Humsafar with him.^[8] KK also has a daughter named Taamara.

He has been greatly influenced by the singer Kishore Kumar and music director R. D. Burman.

Career

After graduating from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University in commerce. KK had a brief stint of eight months as marketing executive in the hotel industry. After few years, in 1994, he moved to Mumbai.^[7]

Playback singing

In 1994, he gave his demo tape to Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot and Leslie Lewis to get a break in the music arena. He was called by UTV and he sang a jingle for Santogen Suiting ad.^[8] In a span of four years, he has sung more than 3,500 jingles in 11 Indian languages. He got the first break in Mumbai from UTV to sing jingles. He considers Leslie Lewis as his mentor for giving him his first jingle to sing in Mumbai.^[7] KK was introduced as a playback singer with A. R. Rahman's hit song "College Styley" and "Hello Dr." from Kadir's Kadal Desam and then "Strawberry Kannae" from AVM Productions's musical film Minsara Kanavu (1997).^[9] Pritam Chakraborty is also fan of him. He got his Bollywood break with "Tadap Tadap Ke Is Dil" from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999).^[9] However, prior to this song he had song a small portion of the song "Chod aaye hum" from Gulzar's Maachis. Till now, KK has sung more than 500 songs in Hindi and more than 200 songs in Telugu, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages.^[10] He has worked with music composers such as Rajesh Roshan, Ilayaraja, Vishal Bhardwaj, Ismail Darbar, Himesh Reshammiya, Anu Malik, Anand-Milind, Vishal-Shekhar, M. M. Keeravani, Vidyasagar, Mani Sharma, A. R. Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Harris Jayaraj, Deva, Devi Sri Prasad, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Pritam Chakraborty, Deepak Dev,Jeet Gannguli,Mithoon and etc. KK has sung many songs with Alka Yagnik,Shreya Ghoshal,Sunidhi Chauhan, Udit Narayan and Shaan.

Albums and television

In the year 1999, Sony Music had just been launched in India and they were looking to launch a new artiste. KK was selected as the new artiste and he came out with a solo album titled Pal with Leslie Lewis composing the music. Pal was the first album released by KK under Sony Music for which he got the prestigious Screen award as best singer.

On January 22, 2008, KK released his second album Humsafar after a gap of eight years.^[11] The songs "Aasmaan Ke", "Yeh Kahan Mil Gaye Hum" and "Rain Bhai [Maajhi]" are famous songs from this album, besides, KK had also sung an English Rock Ballad "Cineraria". The title track, "Humsafar" is a mix of English and Hindi lyrics. Humsafar has 10 songs, out of which eight have been composed by KK. The other two songs were taken from his previous album Pal.

KK appeared on television too. He was invited as jury member for a talent hunt show Fame Gurukul, but he is clear that he would not like to return to television.^[12]

KK participated in the latest musical venture of MTV India Coke Studio. There he sang one qawwali Chadta Suraj along with Sabri Brothers and a recomposed version of his exquisite track Tu Aashiqui Hai from movie Jhankaar Beats. He also came in Surlie Baat in Aaj Tak Chanel. He has also performed in Sony Mix Tv Show and MTV Unplugged Season 3 , aired on MTV 11 jan 2014

Discography

GAYAK[unrealeased]1996

Tamil Songs

Awards and honours

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Krishnakumar Kunnath.

• KK at the Internet Movie Database