Vijesh Gopal

Vijesh Gopal^[1] is a playback singer in Malayalam film music industry. His parents are Mr. K.G.Venugopal and Mrs. C.R.Jayalekshmi. He was born in November 20, 1979 in the island of Vypeen, Kochi. Vijesh Gopal started learning music from the age of five under Gurus Smt. C.R.Mani, Shri. Sudhan Vachakkal, Shri. Jayakumar shenoy and acquired advanced training in carnatic music under Shri. Mavelikkara Prabhakara varma, Shri. KumaraKerala Varma, Shri. Ponkunnam Ramachandran, Shri. Tripunithura Vinayachandran & Shri. Mavelikara Subrahmaniam. Also he is trained in carnatic vilolin under Gurus Shri. Aravindakshan, Shri. Sunil bhaskar and Shri. T.H.Subrahmaniam. He is also the disciple of Shri Kalamandalam Haider Ali in kathakali sangeetham. He bagged state level prizes in kathakali sangeetham, violin and carnatic music. He has also won the prizes in light music, carnatic music and violin competitions of M.G University. In 1996 he was also a part of the national level youth festival held in Ranchi.

Year 1998 was a turning point in Vijesh Gopal’s life when he got introduced to the ever green music maestro of Malayalam music industry Shri G.Devarajan (Devarajan master). Devarajan master made him his disciple and thus he was a part of master’s gurukulam of music. Master moulded him and refined his singing techniques by making him sing all the varieties of his compositions. After getting groomed up to the quality and perfection levels of Devarajan master he was offered to sing for Devarajan master’s music. Under Devarajan master Vijesh sang in TV serial kadalezhum kadannu, K.P.A.C drama Raja Ravivarma, Adhinivesham and also in one of master’s last albums pranayathinte devaragangal. In “Pranayathinte Devaragangal” Vijesh sang three songs in which other renowned singers like K.J.Yesudas, P.Jayachandran and P.Madhuri had also sung. In the year 2001, Devarajan master presented his five disciples, Vijesh Gopal, Sudeep Kumar, Vidhu Prathap, Dr. Rashmi Madhu & Julie Jose to the music industry and regarded them as the “singers of the millennium”. This event was organized by Devarajan master as a convocation for his disciples. Vijesh Gopal considers this as the biggest award of his career. Master also participated him in the list of selected singers to sing his technically specialized songs in the concert organized in connection with his 75 th birthday at Kerala fine arts society in Kochi. In this event of two days programme master made him sing the opening songs on both days. Vijesh stayed with Devarajan master for about six years in his karamana rental house and his residence in Chennai during 1999–2004 as part of his gurukulam learning. Devarajan master had great hopes in this singer and he always had great confidence that Vijesh will be one of the leading singers in the years to come. Unfortunately after Devarajan master’s demise in 2006 only few musicians like Shri Johnson, Kaithapram brothers etc. supported him in the field by giving chances in films and concerts.

Vijeshgopal had also sung in few films which didn’t get much attention due to the commercial valueof the films. The films are Pravasam (Kaithapram), Hai (B.J.Prakash), Photographer (Johnson), Malabar wedding (Rahul Raj), Bhagavan (Ajith Sukumar), Mouryan, Kavyam (Kaithapram Viswanath), Arabipponnu (Sachin Kaitharam) and Navagatharkku swagatham (Johnson). He has also done some hit albums like Sabarigiri, Ponnambalam, Palazhi, poornasree and punyajyothi. He has sung over 300 songs including TV serial songs like sasneham, pattam, sindooracheppu etc.

Vijesh has done almost 700 stage shows all over kerala and is a regular face in certain TV shows based on classic songs. He is an active part of Devarajan foundation programmes in Dubai from 2009 and has done many concerts in Kuwait and Bahrain. Vijesh Gopal’s journey in his music career is excelling with the upcoming ventures in Malayalam /Tamil films, albums and concerts.

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