Born in Bombay on April 3rd, 1955, Hariharan has bachelors degrees in science and law. The son of renowned Carnatic vocalists, the late Ananthasubramani ("H. A. S. Mani") from Trivandrum and Shrimati Alamelu, Hariharan naturally inherited his parents' musical talents. Mom was Hariharan's first guruji. From her he picked up Carnatic music skills.
Hariharan took the Indian musical scene by storm in 1996 with his phenomenally successful "Colonial Cousins" album, a collaborative effort with Leslie Lewis. This Indian-English fusion album, which consistently topped the Indian musical charts in 1996 and even became the first Indian act to be featured on MTV Unplugged, won Hariharan the international fame that had eluded him in his more than 15-year career as a recording artiste. Trained both in Carnatic and Hindustani music, this Tamilian from Bombay first made his mark in an unconventional way -- as a ghazal singer. But his fame was restricted to a small coterie of ghazal fans. Hariharan has also long sung for Hindi films and for Tamil films since 1993 but, ironically, it was an album in which he has sung in English that catapulted him to the heights of fame. Since that success, there has been no turning back; acclaim after acclaim followed. Hariharan is now the most sought after film singer in Chennai. Mumbai's filmdom has also re-discovered him. In 1998, Hariharan received the prestigious Indian National Film Award for "Best Male Singer" for the Hindi song Mere dushman mere bhai from the movie "Border".
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Hariharan took the Indian musical scene by storm in 1996 with his phenomenally successful "Colonial Cousins" album, a collaborative effort with Leslie Lewis. This Indian-English fusion album, which consistently topped the Indian musical charts in 1996 and even became the first Indian act to be featured on MTV Unplugged, won Hariharan the international fame that had eluded him in his more than 15-year career as a recording artiste. Trained both in Carnatic and Hindustani music, this Tamilian from Bombay first made his mark in an unconventional way -- as a ghazal singer. But his fame was restricted to a small coterie of ghazal fans. Hariharan has also long sung for Hindi films and for Tamil films since 1993 but, ironically, it was an album in which he has sung in English that catapulted him to the heights of fame. Since that success, there has been no turning back; acclaim after acclaim followed. Hariharan is now the most sought after film singer in Chennai. Mumbai's filmdom has also re-discovered him. In 1998, Hariharan received the prestigious Indian National Film Award for "Best Male Singer" for the Hindi song Mere dushman mere bhai from the movie "Border".
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