Mahanadhi Shobana

Although born as "Shobana Vignesh," the classically-trained Indian vocalist Mahanadhi Shobana earned her nickname after starring in the award-winning Tamil film Mahanadhi in 1994. She was born in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, and raised in Chennai, where she studied Carnatic music with mentors like P. S. Narayanaswamy and T. R. Subramaniam. A child prodigy, Mahanadhi Shobana took her training seriously, becoming a highly sought-after Carnatic vocalist at a young age. While still a child, she appeared in the movie Mahanadhi and earned a national hit with her performance of "Sri Ranga Ranga." The film helped launch her career, and Mahanadhi Shobana continued her academic studies — eventually becoming one of the youngest people in Indian history to receive her doctorate in music — while releasing a number of albums in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Braj, Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. She became one of the best-selling Carnatic vocalists of the modern era, heralded not only for her smooth timbre, but also her academic acheivements. By 2021, she had recorded more than 100 albums, with highlights including 1995's Ammanukku Thiruvizha, 1999's Namo Namo Sri Narayana, 2010's Shobana Live in Concert – Bharat Kalachar (which was nominated at the Global Indian Music Awards), and 2011's Vishnumaya.

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