The Unbelievable History of Telugu Music With Their Artist

If you love music, you must have noticed how the general masses have moved on to have multilingual preferences in the music genre. Those days are long gone when people listened to music that belonged to their language and region only. Today music has reached such a platform where people, artists and cultures exchange ideas and collaborate globally. 

In furtherance to that, there has been an upheaval of Telugu music around the world. Hence, the spectrum of collaboration for Telugu dialect has moved from movies and feature films towards music, especially Telugu Karaoke Songs that have become a rave among native speakers. Similarly, music lovers have started showing their interest in karaoke. As a result, the industry has experienced a significant upsurge since sources have catered to Telugu karaoke songs with lyrics.  

Telugu is one of the many Carnatic languages. It is one of the 22 recognised regional languages in India and the 15th most spoken language globally. It falls in the Dravidian family of languages. It has been deemed the official language for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, two southern states in the Indian subcontinent. Its music resonates with its rich art, culture, and history of both the States and their history.

Moreover, the song continually reveals the music composer’s thoughts and personality. Every artist incorporates their musical intricacies into the composition. Hence, every rendition of the same song is different from the other. The most dominant instruments used in Telugu music are nadaswaram, mandolin, violin, veena and mridangam, which are altogether different from the instruments used in folk music. Telugu folk music is more like musical storytelling that also involves jokes, puns, prayers and poems. Two of the most popular forms of folk music are Burra Katha and Poli. While Burra Katha is the art of storytelling, the story can be based on any theme, mythology, social and contemporary issues. Another form of storytelling, called Harikatha, also exists, in which songs are blended in the story, wherever they relate to the theme like a musical drama. The singers capture different emotions at different phases to show the various thoughts poured into the musical piece. Hence, it is the singers who carry the legacy of music with their voices. 

In this article, we pay homage to those remarkable voices and the biggest legends of the Telugu Music Industry.

• S. P. Balasubrahmanyam- Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam is loved by millions, thrives in the heart of many more, one who has impacted both Telugu and non- Telugu music industry. He has won six National Awards for best playback singer male for his contribution in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. He has also received the Nandi Award for his work in the Tamil industry specifically. “Ammanu Minchi” and “Nuvvu Nenu” are his most famous karaoke songs, among many others. 
• S. Janaki- Sistla Janaki – admiringly called “Janaki Amma”, a multilingual who has sung songs across Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali and native languages such as Tulu, Konkani, Sindhi. She has also composed many albums in Tamil music. Karaoke lovers can’t get enough of her numbers like “Aresukoboyi Paresukunnanu” and “Vennello Godari Mendham”. 
• K. S. Chithra – Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra has a career spanning over four decades. This multilingual queen has spread her deep voice across foreign languages such as French, Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese and English and contributed to Tamil, Bengali, Rajasthani, Urdu, Sanskrit and Badaga, among many others. In addition, she has collaborated with maestros such as A.R Rehman, Ilaiyaraaja, KJ Yesudas and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. She has won six National Awards, eight South Filmfare Awards, Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. However, the melodic singer’s most defined works are “Ye Shwasalo” and “Venuvai Vachanu”, personal favourites of every Telugu karaoke session.
• P. B. Sreenivas – Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas has predominated the Telugu, Konkani, Malayali, Tulu, Tamil and Hindi music industry. He has a biography to his name, `Madhurya Saarvabhowma Dr P. B. Srinivas-Naadayogiya Sunaadayaana’, written by R. Srinath. He has received honours, including the second-highest award of Karnataka State, the ‘Kannada Rajyotsava Award’ and the Kalaimamani Award by Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu State Film Honorary Award ‘Kalaivanar Award’. His most resonating karaoke songs to date are “Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham ”, “Baare Baare” and “Mayakkamaa Kalakkama” among many others. 
• L. R. Eswari – Lourde-Mary Rajeswari career spans her contribution to Telugu, Tulu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English. It has been awarded Tamil Nadu’s highest award in creativity and arts, the Kalaimamani Award. Her voice was considered best suited for peppy tracks like different dance tunes, folk numbers and even devotional songs. Her most popular track, “Vaarayo Thozhi” from Paasa Malar, is a crowd favorite for weddings. 

The Telugu music industry is notable not only to its natives but also to people who do not even understand the language. Since they all communicate an uplifting and positive vibe and the instruments played have a rich and refined history that sounds the same as they did ages ago, the industry has not lost its charm, leading to a whopping increase in karaoke tracks downloads by karaoke enthusiasts. In addition to that, the Telugu film industry, which is also popularly known as Tollywood, is the second-largest movie industry in the country after Bollywood. The circuit is majorly based in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). Now the two industries have started collaborating in both movies as well as in music. Recently P, Susheela entered the Guinness Book of World Records for recording the highest number of songs sung by a single female artist. She has also won 5 National Film Awards, thus throwing limelight and the global platform on the Telugu music industry. In furtherance to that, these maestros have diversified the paradigm of Telugu music, composing music in different industries and languages, blending Telugu in other parts of the world. Moreover, they have heavily contributed to evolving the genre from time to time with their serene compositions and thus, result in Telugu music having a thriving history.