Shilpa Rao

Shilpa Rao (born Apeksha Rao; 11 April 1984) is an Indian singer born and raised in Jamshedpur.

She completed her Post Graduation in Applied Statistics from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, before working as a jingle singer for three years.

Born on 11 April 1984 in Jamshedpur, Rao was initially named as Apeksha Rao but later changed to Shilpa Rao.

According to her, she relates to the name Shilpa more, since the name has "to do with art".

She started singing while she was a kid, tutored and instructed by her father, S Venkat Rao, who holds a degree in music.

He taught Rao to understand the "nuances" of different ragas: "His method of teaching was casual and at the same time very effective because it was designed to pique my interest".

For her education, Rao went to Little Flower School and Loyola School, Jamshedpur, where she was part of the choir group in school.

In 1997, she visited to Mumbai along with her family, to do a postgraduate diploma in statistics from the University of Mumbai.

Rao was motivated to be a singer upon meeting with Hariharan, at the age of 13, and commenced training under Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, insisted by Hariharan.

Initially, she found herself struggling in "finding references" and meeting music composers since she was not "so active" in social networking media during the time.

About her early days in the city, Rao said: "Jamshedpur is home for me but Mumbai with the people, the place, the pace everything has made a more patient person and a more hardworking artist I could ever be".

In 2001 she began performing live with Hariharan at different venues, subsequently winning a national-level talent hunt in New Delhi.

Shankar Mahadevan–one of the judges in the contest–asked her to settle in Mumbai.

In 2004, she shifted to Mumbai and completed Post Graduation in Applied Statistics from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Mahadevan gave Rao few contacts of people who helped her in getting to sing jingles.

Rao mentioned that singing jingles was "perhaps the best way" to start in Mumbai as it helped her making the best contacts in the studios.

She worked as a jingle singer for three years and established a life of her own.

She sang songs for products such as Cadbury's Munch, Sunsilk, Anchor Gel and No Marks.

Though Rao credits "Tose Naina" as her career debut song, the soundtrack of the film Ek Ajnabee (2005) has a semi-instrumental track titled "Stranger On The Prowl" which has Rao's alap incorporated within it.

She collaborated with Mithoon in two other projects during the year; Aggar and The Train.

Though "Sehra" from the former met with negative reactions from music critics, both "Woh Ajnabee" and "Teri Tamanna" from the latter were well received; Raja Sen from Rediff.com praising Rao's "strong vocals" in particular.

While shooting for Salaam-e-Ishq, music composer Shankar Mahadevan from the trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy suggested Rao's name to director Nikhil Advani, thus landing the song "Saiyaan Re".

Sukanya Verma who praised Rao's "perfectly impish delivery" of the song wrote: "Despite Mahadevan's dynamic presence, [Rao], to watch out for, is never once intimidated".

She again teamed up with Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy for the Hindi version of the track "All For One" from the soundtrack of High School Musical 2.

During her college days, composer Mithoon offered her to record the song "Tose Naina" from Anwar (2007), making her Bollywood career debut, and the song went on to become one of the most popular songs of 2007.

Rao rose to widespread prominence with the release of "Woh Ajnabi" from The Train (2007) and "Khuda Jaane" from Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), the latter of which earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer.

While Rao was studying at college, she met with Mithoon, who called her for recording of the song "Tose Naina" from Anwar (2007).

Considering the song as her "most innocent rendition" she had done, Rao said, "This song is extremely close to my heart and has taught me what thrill and gratitude of music is and can be".

Rao's first release of 2008 came with Raghav Sachar-composed remix version of "Gup Chup" from One Two Three, followed by "Ek Lau" from Aamir, composed by Amit Trivedi.

According to Rao, "Ek Lau" was a song of "hope for many people for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks".

She affirmed that the song will inspire people and picked "Ek Lau" as one of the "few compositions" that is "close" to her.

Apart from rendering "Main Sajda" for Anu Malik in Good Luck!, she was heard in a "faint alaap" at the beginning of the song "Koi Na Jaane" from Hijack, along with KK.

The duo also collaborated during the year, in Vishal–Shekhar's "Khuda Jaane" from Bachna Ae Haseeno.

Rao, calling the song a "timeless classic", felt it was beautifully composed and written.

The following year, she collaborated with Ilaiyaraaja for Paa (2009), where she performed the song "Mudi Mudi Ittefaq Se" which earned her a second Filmfare nomination in the same category.

In 2012, Rao teamed up with A. R. Rahman for the song "Ishq Shava" for Yash Chopra's swan song Jab Tak Hai Jaan, followed by Pritam's "Malang" from Dhoom 3 (2013) and Vishal–Shekhar's "Meherbaan" from Bang Bang! (2014).

Rao's collaborations with Amit Trivedi were also acclaimed with songs such as "Manmarziyaan" from Lootera (2013) receiving particular praise.

She was the final Indian singer to perform in Coke Studio Pakistan with the song "Paar Chanaa De" (2016) and received praise for singing the song "Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo" from the deluxe edition of the Ae Dil Hai Mushkil soundtrack (2016).

Rao is particularly known in the media for trying new styles in her songs and singing for different genres.

Rao, who considers her father as her biggest inspiration in the music career, has supported charitable organisations for a number of causes.