KK (singer)
| KK | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Performing Live at The JockeyClub Auditorium, Hong Kong | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Krishnakumar Kunnath |
| Also known as | Kay Kay, K. K. |
| Born |
1970 (age 44–45) New Delhi, India |
| Genres | Playback singing |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, composer |
| Instruments | Vocal |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Sony |
| Website |
themesmerizer |
Krishnakumar Kunnath (born 1970), popularly known as KK or Kay Kay, is an Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam 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. He is 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]
He successfully launched the Album Humsafar 8 years after the first album, in Jan 2008. Humsafar, came eight years after the release of KK's super-hit debut album Pal.[1] It belongs to the pop-rock genre and has a total of 10 songs. Humsafar has two songs – "Din Ho Ya Raat" and "Mehki Hawa" – from Pal, KK's earlier album. The album has a fun-filled romantic number – "Aasman Ke", featuring the singer and a south Indian model, Suhasi Goradia Dhami, in the video. "Humsafar", the title track, an interplay of English and Hindi lyrics, is about one's conscience and how it is a constant companion in the journey of life. One of the songs, "Yeh Kahan", was penned seven years before the release and "Dekho Na", a rock number, was written six years ago. The rest of the six songs came about in the last two years before the release.[1] Other songs in the album include "Rain Bhai Kaari", a mix of Bengali Baul with rock and a tinge of S D Burman, and "Cineraria", a fun-filled English ballad. His latest song "Kabhi Aayine Pe Likha Tujhe" from the movie Hate Story 2 is well received by the audience and is also among the top 10 chart busters.
KK is praised by most of the bollywood personalities. Pritam Chakraborty is huge fan of him. Singer Arijit Singh said he is a big fan of KK. Roop kumar rathod prefers KK more than others. Ankit Tiwari said KK is his idol and inspiration. Singer Javed Ali claimed he really likes KK as his favourite recent singer along with Sonu Nigam. KK has really established himself as a musical king of his millions of fan's hearts.
Personal life
KK married his childhood sweetheart Jyothy Krishna 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. His melodious voice has helped to gain a certain genre of songs… his forte is Love songs and his voice almost always touches a chord in every listeners heart. He is truly the next generation Kishore Kumar. With no formal training in singing, he still stands tall among all the other talented playback singers of Bollywood.
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
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In 1994, he gave his demo tape to Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot and Lesle 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 Lesle 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 Kadhal 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 sung 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 leading music composers such as Rajesh Roshan, Ilayaraja, R. D. Burman, Vishal Bhardwaj, Ismail Darbar, Himesh Reshammiya, Anu Malik, Lesle Lewis, Bappi Lahiri, Anand-Milind, Vishal-Shekhar, Ajay-Atul, Vipin Patwa, Ashok Bhadra, M. M. Keeravani, Vidyasagar, Mani Sharma, A. R. Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Harris Jayaraj, G. V. Prakash Kumar, Deva, R. P. Patnaik, Devi Sri Prasad, Ramana Gogula, Amit Trivedi, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Ranjit Barot, Abhishek Ray, Adnan Sami, Pritam Chakraborty, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shujaat Khan, Gaurav Dagaonkar, Bapi–Tutul, Deepak Dev, Jeet Gannguli, Viju Shah, Jatin-Lalit, Sachin-Jigar, Raghav Sachar, Anand Raj Anand, Uttam Singh, Salim-Sulaiman, Sajid-Wajid, Shantanu Moitra, Roop Kumar Rathod, Ashutosh Phatak, Sohail Sen, Sharib-Toshi, Mithoon, Sachin Gupta, Sandesh Shandilya, Mahesh Shankar, Chirantan Bhatt, Monty Sharma, Aadesh Shrivastava, Sanjeev-Darshan, Nadeem-Shravan, Ram Sampath, Anupam Amod, Parikrama, Rashid Khan, Ankit Tiwari, Shamir Tandon, Siddharth-Suhaas, Nitin Raikwar, Santhosh Nair etc. KK has sung many songs with Alka Yagnik, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Udit Narayan, Shilpa Rao, Tulsi Kumar, Dominique Cerejo, Shaan and others. He has lent his voice to the biggest hit song this year (2014) "Tune maari entriyaan" among several others in Gunday.
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 Lesle 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 22 January 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 has also sung many television serial songs like Just Mohabbat, Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Kuch Jhuki Si Palkein, Kavyanjali, Just Dance etc. 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 Sureeli Baat in Aaj Tak Chanel. He has also performed in Sony Mix TV Show and MTV Unplugged Season 3, aired on MTV 11 January 2014.KK was in Dubai for his concert 'Salaam Dubai 2014'in April. He also did recent concerts in Goa, Dubai & Chennai.
Discography
Awards and honours
| Filmfare Awards | ||||
| 2000 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tadap Tadap" (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam) | Nominated | |
| 2003 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Bardaasht" (Humraaz) | ||
| 2005 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Dus Bahane" (Dus) | ||
| 2006 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" (Gangster) | ||
| 2008 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Ajab Si" (Om Shanti Om) | ||
| 2009 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Zara Sa" (Jannat) | ||
| Best Playback Singer – Male | "Khuda Jane" (Bachna Ae Haseeno) | |||
| Screen Awards | ||||
| 1999 | Best Playback Singer – Male (Non-Film Music)[6] | "Pal" (Pal) | Won | |
| 2004 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Awarapan Banjarapan" (Jism) | Nominated | |
| Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tu Aashiqui Hai" (Jhankaar Beats) | |||
| 2006 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Dus Bahane" (Dus) | ||
| 2007 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" (Gangster) | ||
| 2009 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Khuda Jaane" (Bachna Ae Haseeno) | Won | |
| Zee Cine Awards | ||||
| 2005 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Dus Bahane" (Dus) | Nominated | |
| 2007 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" (Gangster) | ||
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Zindagi Do Pal Ki"(Kites) | ||
| IIFA Awards | ||||
| 2004 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Jhankar Beats" (Jhankaar Beats) | Nominated | |
| 2006 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Dus Bahane" (Dus) | ||
| 2007 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" (Gangster) | ||
| 2008 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Ajab Si" (Om Shanti Om) | ||
| 2009 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Khuda Jaane" (Bachna Ae Haseeno) | ||
| Apsara Awards | ||||
| 2008 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Ajab Si" (Om Shanti Om) | Nominated | |
| 2009 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Khuda Jane" (Bachna Ae Haseeno) | ||
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Sajde" (Khatta Meetha) | ||
| Gima Awards | ||||
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Zindgi Do Pal Ki" (Kites) | Nominated | |
| 2013 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tujhe Sochta Hoon" (Jannat 2) | ||
| Goldie Film Awards, USA | ||||
| 2012 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Chalte Jaana Hain" (Life! Camera Action...) | Won | |
| BIG Star Entertainment Awards | ||||
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Zindgi Do Pal Ki" (Kites) | Nominated | |
| Stardust Awards | ||||
| 2014 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Tune Maari Entriyaan " (Gunday) | Nominated | |
| Annual Central European Bollywood Awards | ||||
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Jaane Ye Kya Hua" (Karthik Calling Karthik) | Nominated | |
| 2007 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Ajab si" (Om Shanti Om ) | Nominated | |
| Star Guild Awards | ||||
| 2008 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Ajab Si" (Om Shanti Om) | Nominated | |
| 2009 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Khuda Jaane" (Bachna Ae Haseeno) | Nominated | |
| 2011 | Best Playback Singer – Male | "Sajde kiye" (Khatta Meetha) | Nominated | |
| Source: Bollywood Hungama.[13] | ||||
References
- ↑ "The right note". The Hindu. 9 December 2006.
- ↑ Lasrado, Richie (25 November 2006). "A Kandid Konversation with KK". Daijiworld.com.
- ↑ R, Balaji (6 June 2005). "The KK factor". The Hindu.
- ↑ "KK sang 3,500 jingles before Bollywood break". Sify movies. 28 April 2009.
- ↑ "KK Profile". In.com. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "8th Annual Star Screen Awards 1999". Screen India. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Sensational Singer KK to Perform Live in City on Nov 23". Daijiworld.com. 22 November 2006.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Vijayakar, Rajiv (18 February 2008). "High Pitch". Screen.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "It takes three to tango". The Hindu. 13 March 2007.
- ↑ D, Jhonny (4 July 2003). "On a high note". Screen India.
- ↑ "Star-studded music launches are back". Screen India. 5 February 2008.
- ↑ "Composing music is an extension of my being:KK". Sify movies. 24 February 2008.
- ↑ "K K : Awards & Nominations". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
External links
- KK at the Internet Movie Database
- KK on Twitter
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