Harini (born 30 April 1979) is an Indian film playback and classical singer born and raised in Chennai.[1] She sings predominantly in Tamil films, besides other language films such as Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. She was first noticed by music director A. R. Rahman at a school competition where she was one among the winners.[2] Eventually, she was signed in to record the song "Nila Kaigiradhu" for the film Indira (1995) when she was 15. The song went on to become one of the popular songs of the year and Harini began to get singing offers from other leading film composers.[3]
Harini has won Best Female Playback Singer award twice at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for the songs "Manam Virumbuthey" (Nerukku Ner, 1997)[4] and "Aalanguyil Koovum Rayil" (Parthiban Kanavu, 2003).[5] The latter song won her ITFA Best Female Playback Award for the year 2004.[6]
Born on 30 April 1979, Harini learnt Carnatic music from Gowri and Radha Viswanathan from the age of four. She used to participate in school competitions and in one such competition which she won, A. R. Rahman who distributed the prizes invited the winners to his studio to record their voices. Subsequently, she was called by Suhasini Maniratnam to sing "Nila Kaigirathu" for her first film Indira. Her first song, "Nila Kaigirathu", was recorded at the age of 15. Since then, she has received offers from various music directors across South India. Within a career spanning a decade, she sang over 3500 songs four south Indian languages in which 35 devotional albums in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
Harini is married to singer Tippu. A strong believer and follower of Sathya Sai Baba, Tippu married Harini in Puttaparthi when they both were 22 years.[7] They have a daughter named Sai Smriti and son, Sai Abhyankkar, who made his singing debut with the single "Katchi Sera" in 2024.[8] The single became popular and was trending across the musical websites and YouTube.[9] [10]
Harini rendered a series of devotional songs in 2012 on Lord Amman, Ganesha, Perumal among others, titled Om Nava Sakthi Jaya Jaya Sakthi, Vindhaigal Purindhai Nee En Vazhville, and Uchi Pillaiyare Charanam along with ace singer P. Unni Krishnan. The music was composed and produced by Manachanallur Giridharan.[11]
Harini has been the recipient of several popular awards in the singing category. Some of her awards are as listed below:[citation needed]