Ilaiyaraaja also known as Gnanathesigan(birth name) was born in a Dalit family belonging to Pannaipuram. It is present in Theni district, Tamil Nadu. He was born on 02 June 1943. Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple has three children – Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Bhavatharini. All are film composers and singers. His wife Jeeva died. Ilaiyaraaja’s brother, Gangai Amaran, is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry.
R. Gnanathesikan known as Ilaiyaraaja, is an Indian film composer, conductor, singer and lyricist who works in the Indian film industry, especially in Tamil. He is one of the greatest Indian music composers, often credited for introducing Western musical sensibilities in the South Indian film musical mainstream. He has composed more than 7000 songs, provided film scores for more than 1400 movies and performed in more than 20,000 concerts. Ilaiyaraaja is nicknamed “Isaignani” (musical genius), a title conferred by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. Often referred to as “Maestro”, conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
He is known for integrating Indian folk music and traditional Indian instrumentation with western classical music techniques. In 1986, he was the first Indian composer to record film songs through computer for Tamil films “Vikram”. Ilaiyaraaja is a recipient of five National Film Awards – three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score. Ilaiyaraaja has sung more than 400 songs of his own compositions for films and is recognisable by his stark, deep voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil. He is a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, Distance Learning Channel.
In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in India and the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India.
Ilaiyaraaja still uses his old harmonium while composing a song in his studio or on stage during a concert with which he has scored more than 7000 songs throughout his career. Ilaiyaraaja who is an Indian composer and instrumentalist has worked over 1000 films in various languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, English, Marathi, Sanskrit, Punjabi. Majority of his works in the Tamil language and widely regarded as the greatest Indian music composer of all time by various critics and experts.
Today(02 June 2022), Music composer Isaignani Ilayaraja birthday.
Cini360 Wishes him a Fabulous Birthday. Congratulating him for his great work.
