Malabar Gopalan Nair Sreekumar (born 25 May 1957), better known as M. G. Sreekumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, music producer, television presenter and film producer, who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in Indian Cinema, he has sung more than 2500 songs in various Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Sanskrit. He owns a music company named KMG Musics and the Saregama School of Music in Thiruvananthapuram.On October 2024 he appointed as the Director of the Music Academy of the UAE Government. Sreekumar has won several awards, including two National Film Awards, three Kerala State Film Awards and 5 Filmfare Awards South. He was also honoured with the Harivarasanam Award by the Government of Kerala in 2016. His career as a singer spans over 44 years.

Career

Sreekumar made his debut in the Malayalam movie Coolie (1983) Directed by Ashok Kumar. The Malayalam movie Chithram (1988) directed by Priyadarshan, starring Mohanlal, was the first where Sreekumar sang all the songs. He has sung more than 35,000 songs for films in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu. He worked as music director in Malayalam films such as Chathurangam (2002) and Thandavam (2002), Priyadarshan's Kanchivaram (2008), Mohanlal's Alexander the Great and Oru Naal Varum. He anchored a TV show named SaReGaMa on Asianet and was a judge for the reality show Idea Star Singer. Now he is a judge in Top Singer on Flowers TV. His appointment as chairman of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi by the LDF government of Kerala sparked controversy due to his close relations with its political rival BJP.

Personal life

Sreekumar was born on 25 May 1957, at Haripad, in Alappuzha district, Kerala as the younger son of music composer and harmonist Malabar Gopalan Nair and Harikatha exponent Kamalakshi Amma. He is the younger brother of popular music director M. G. Radhakrishnan and popular Carnatic musician Dr. K. Omanakkutty. Sreekumar and Lekha, his future wife, first saw each other in 1988 at Thycaud Dharma Sastha Temple, Thiruvananthapuram, but they met each other only few days later after a concert. Gradually, they developed friendship and later began living together. Sreekumar and Lekha married on 14 January 2000 at the Mookambika Temple, Kollur.

Discography

As singer

Malayalam (partial list)

Tamil

Telugu

Hindi

As composer

Beside films, Sreekumar has composed many devotional albums. Majority of his songs are written by Rajeev Alunkal and Gireesh Puthenchery.

Television

Awards

National Film Awards: Kerala State Film Awards: Kerala Film Critics Awards Filmfare Awards South: Asianet Film Awards: Surya TV Awards: Other awards: