K. S. Chithra

K S Chithra with K J Yesudas and P Jayachandran

Chithra was introduced to Malayalam playback by M. G. Radhakrishnan in 1979 who recorded her voice for films and private albums. Attahasam, Snehapoorvam Meera and Njan Ekananu were the first films in which she recorded her voice. She performed live concerts with K. J. Yesudas in India and abroad. The song "Manjal Prasadavum" from the film Nakhakshathangal (1986) composed by Bombay Ravi got her the second National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer. She sang the song "Indupushpam Choodi Nilkum" for the film Vaishali (1989) and won her third National Film Award. Her first Kerala State Film Award for Best Singer was for the song "Aayiram Kannumayi" from the film Nokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu (1986) composed by Jerry Amaldev. Since then, she has earned wide recognition by singing popular songs under the compositions of Raveendran, Shyam, S. P. Venkitesh, Mohan Sithara, Kannur Rajan, Ilaiyaraaja, Johnson, Ouseppachan, M. K. Arjunan, A. T. Ummer, Berny Ignatius, M. B. Sreenivasan, Vidyasagar, Ramesh Narayan, Sharreth and M. Jayachandran. She is regarded as "Nightingale of Kerala (Vanambadi)" and recorded many successful songs in Malayalam. She recorded a number of songs for the composer S. P. Venkitesh and her maximum duet songs in Malayalam are with K. J. Yesudas and M. G. Sreekumar. As of 2017, she has won the Kerala State Awards for the record 16 times.

K S Chithra and the composer Ilaiyaraja during the recording session of Matthaappoovu oru Penn song from the Tamil film Michael Madana Kama Rajan in the year 1989

K S Chithra with Composer Ilaiyaraja, Singer K J Yesudas and Director Fazil during the recording session of the Tamil film Poove Poochooda Vaa in the year 1984

Chithra made her debut in the Tamil film industry through the song "Poojaikketha Poovithu" from the film Neethana Antha Kuyil (1985), which was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. She was given the title Chinnakuyil after singing the song "Chinna Kuyil Paadum" from the 1985 released film Poove Poochudava.[4] Director Fazil cast her for this song after Ilaiyaraaja got impressed with her song sung in original version in Malayalam for the film Nokkethadhoorathu Kannum Nattu in 1985 directed by himself.. For the folksy classical song "Paadariyaen Padippariyaen" from the film Sindhu Bhairavi (1986), she was awarded with the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer. Since then, she has recorded thousands of Tamil film songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja, A. R. Rahman, Deva, S. A. Rajkumar, Vidyasagar, Sirpy, Yuvan Shankar Raja, G. V. Prakash Kumar, Harris Jayaraj and Santhosh Narayanan. She has sung huge number of evergreen hit songs in Tamil which are remembered till date. She is the only female singer who has sung the maximum number of songs for the Academy Award winning composer A. R. Rahman for his Tamil film songs.. Her fifth National award for best singer was for the song "Oooh La La" from the film Minsara Kanavu (1997).

K S Chithra and S P Balasubrahmanyam during a Song recording session

Chithra's first Telugu song was "Paadalenu Pallavaina" from the dubbed version of Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi (1985) composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Her first song in a Telugu film is "Abba Daanisoku" from Aakhari Poratam (1988), sung alongside S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. She gained recognition for "Jallanta Kavvinta" from Geethanjali (1989) and then went onto sing several songs.[27] Chithra received her first Nandi Award, presented by Government of Andhra Pradesh for "Kalika Chilakala Koliki" from Seetharamayya Gari Manavaralu (1991). She won a total of 11 Nandi Awards as Best Female Playback Singer for various Telugu songs.[28]

K S Chithra and the Kannada Nadha Bramha Dr. Hamsalekha

Chithra started her journey in Kannada cinema through the film Antharangada Mrudanga released in 1986. The song "Vasantha Rajana" was composed by M. Ranga Rao. In the same year, Ranga Rao offered her two songs in the film Aruna Raaga which were well noted. She also recorded songs for composers such as G. K. Venkatesh and Satyam. This was followed by the song "Sheela O My Sheela", a duet song with K. J. Yesudas and composed by Bappi Lahiri for the Dwarakish directorial fantasy-adventure film Africadalli Sheela.

Throughout the 1990s, she went on to become a notable singer in Kannada film industry with her perfection in diction and finesse. Her popular solos and duets with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam made brought her acclaim for portraying great deal of nativity in her singing. Chithra has recorded close to 1500 songs in Kannada cinema. Her most frequent collaborations in Kannada has been with Hamsalekha, V. Manohar and her duet songs have been largely with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Rajesh Krishnan. She is fondly referred to as Gaana Kogile and Kannada Kogile in Kannada cinema industry.

Lyricist Gulzar and K S Chithra during the recording session of the Sunset Point Album in the year 2000

Chithra was introduced to Hindi film music in 1985; she recorded her first Hindi song composed by S. P. Venkitesh, which was not commercially released. For the 1991 Hindi film Love, composers Anand–Milind, called upon her to sing duets song along with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and since then, Chithra has recorded for around 200 Bollywood songs.[29] Then she went on recording some Hindi songs under A. R. Rahman's compositions from 1991 to 1995, her breakthrough in Hindi film music came through "Kehna Hi Kya" from the film Bombay (1995), which was highly successful in the North Indian region and gave her an identity in Bollywood film industry. For the song "Payalein Chunmun" recorded in the 1997 film Virasat, Chithra received the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer and became the only South India based female singer till date to achieve the feat. Her most number of Hindi songs were recorded for Anu Malik, the most notable being her voice recorded for eight songs out of eleven in the soundtrack of Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon in 2003.

Some of Chithra's Hindi songs include "Ye Haseen Wadiyan" from Roja, "Yaaron Sun Lo" from Rangeela, "Hum Tumse Na" from Ziddi, "Payale Chunmun" from Virasat (she won a National Award, Star Screen Award and the nomination for FilmfareAwards for her rendition), "Raat Ka Nasha" from Aśoka, "Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya (sad version)", "Rang De Basanti" title track, "Mere Dil Ka Tumse Hi Kehna" from Armaan, "Mere Dil Ka Tumse Hi Kehna" from the film Armaan In the composition of Rajesh Roshan, she has sung "Koi Mil Gaya" title song of the film Koi... Mil Gaya for which she won Bollywood Movie Awards, MTV Immies Award and the nomination for Filmfare Awards. "Tum Bin Jiya Jaye Kaise" from the film Tum Bin topped the charts and she was lauded for her expressive rendition.

Apart from film songs, Chithra recorded for many private albums of which Piya Basanti and Sunset Point became hugely popular and went on to win several laurels including the MTV Music Video Awards. The popularity of the former album made her known among the Northern part of Indians identify her as "Piya Basanti" Chitra.[30]

Chithra has sung over 25,000 songs[15] in number of Indian languages. But predominately she works in South Indian film industry. Chithra has the fame of working with huge number of music directors across India. She has recorded maximum number of songs to the music directors like A. R. Rahman, Ilayaraja, M. M. Keeravani, Koti, S. V. Krishna Reddy, Hamsalekha, Raveendran, Johnson, Sharreth, S. A. Rajkumar, Manisharma, Vidyasagar, Deva, Devi Sri Prasad, Mickey J Meyer in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. She has worked with Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Anu Malik, Anand–Milind, Rajesh Roshan, Jatin–Lalit, Pritam, Sandesh Shandilya, Nadeem-Shravan, Nikhil-Vinay, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Anand Raaj Anand, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Shantanu Moitra and A. R. Rehman in Hindi. She has recorded huge number of duets with singers like S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. J. Yesudas, M. G. Sreekumar, Mano, Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Rajesh Krishnan, Karthik, P. Unnikrishnan, Shankar Mahadevan, Vijay Yesudas in all Indian languages. Chithra, Mano, S.P.Balasubrahmanyam have a special fame of recording all the songs in one film dominatly from 1990 to 1997 mostly in Telugu, Kannada and few Tamil films. She has even recorded hit female duets with Lata Mangeshkar , Asha Bhosle , Farida Khanum , P. Susheela, Vani Jairam, S. Janaki, S. P. Sailaja, Sujatha Mohan, Shreya Ghoshal, Shweta Mohan, Swarnalatha, Minmini, Sadhana Sargam, kavita Krishnamurthy, Anuradha Paudwal, Alisha Chinai, Harini, Chinmayi, Sunidhi Chauhan, Alka Yagnik, Madhushree, Sunitha Upadrashta , Asees Kaur , Shashaa Tirupati in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Hindi. The most successful duet combination was S.P.B-Chithra duo in Telugu and Kannada especially.

They have a fame of recording 2,500 songs to composers Raj–Koti where in total Raj–Koti composed 3,000 songs. Chithra sang some rare duets with the legendary actor and singer Dr.Rajkumar in Kannada.

Apart from playback singing, she also appeared among the panel of judges in the singing reality television shows at Kerala (Idea Star Singer and Josco Indian Voice),[32] at Tamil Nadu (Airtel Super Singer Junior),[33] where she also won the award for Best Female Judge and at Andhra Pradesh (MAA TV) Super Singer. Apart from this judgement panel she has appeared in music-shows like Swarabhishekam, Super Masti, Jhumandi Nadam. She is a regular singer in Ilayaraja's, A.R. Rahman's and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam's concerts. She has performed all over the world in SPB's concerts along with S. P. Sailaja, S. P. Charan. She has been a regular singer participating in all the concerts of SPB50-The World Tour, she has performed almost all around the world with S. P. B. Charan, S. P. Sailaja, Sunitha Upadrashta Karthik & Shweta Mohan.

Chithra recorded her first studio album with Voodoo Rapper for the album called Ragga Raaga in 1993. She recorded the albums in Hindi, Piya Basanti (2000) and Sunset Point. She associated with Ustad Sultan Khan for Piya Basanti which was certified Gold.[34] Sunset Point had eight songs written and narrated by Gulzar and sung by Chithra and Bhupinder.[35] In 2006, she released an album in dedication to M. S. Subbulakshmi named My Tribute. It is a collection of Kritis and bhajans dedicated to Subbulakshmi.[36] In 2009 she released Nightingale: A Salute to Lataji, a musical tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 80th birthday.[37] She also recorded many Malayalam albums for K. J. Yesudas, M. Jayachandran and Sharreth compositions. She also planned a ghazal album with Ghulam Ali and Asha Bhosle.[36]

She had appeared as a judge on several television reality shows