Sooraj Santhosh

Sooraj Santhosh (born September 19, 1987) is an Indian singer, songwriter, producer, and composer.

He straddles the worlds of independent music and playback singing, moving smoothly between the two.

Sooraj was born on September 19, 1987, in Kerala, India.

His was not a musical family.

His father Santhosh Kumar worked for the Forest Department, and his mother Jayakumari was a teacher.

Neither they nor their extended family had any musical connections.

It was the music teacher in Sooraj's mother's school who identified his affinity to music when he was 5 yrs old.

She taught him a song that he sang beautifully.

It was on her advice that Sooraj's parents took this seriously and enrolled him at the age of 6 in Tharanganisari School of Music founded by Dr. K. J. Yesudas.

His initial years at that institution were difficult since he was thrown abruptly into the midst of senior singers.

As a child he struggled to understand what was happening and what was expected of him.

But he gamely stuck on with the constant encouragement of his mother who ensured that he attended classes regularly.

Sooraj has also been under the tutelage of Prof K. Omanakutty, Kollam G.S Balamurali, and Parvathipuram Padmanabha Iyer.

Sooraj completed his High School and Higher Secondary level education in Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram.

In High School he participated and won prizes in School Youth Festivals and State Youth Festivals.

He graduated in commerce from Mahatma Gandhi College, Trivandrum, and did his Post-Graduation in Commerce from Mar Ivanious College, Trivandrum.

While in college he took part in National University Youth Festivals and won prizes consistently.

One of the programs he participated was a musical competition on Surya TV where the renowned flautist Kudamaloor Janardanan was one of the main judges.

Each performance was followed by a host of questions from the judges on music and its intricacies.

It was an interesting format and Sooraj went on to win the competition.

It was after this that he started learning music from Shri Kudamaloor Janardanan.

That opened a new world for him.

He realized that there was so much more to music than taking part and winning in competitions.

This is the moment that opened his mind to the world of music, and he became fascinated with the magic of music.

The doubts that kept cropping up constantly in his mind were being resolved, and he had found someone who could provide clarity.

Sooraj went on to perform vocal concerts in his home-town Trivandrum.

After completing his Post Graduation, Sooraj moved to Chennai where he felt he could focus more on his music.

His entry into playback singing was completely unexpected.

While in college he had auditioned for the renowned composer G. V. Prakash Kumar, and after two years he got a call for a recording.

It was the song Inkaa Etho for the movie Darling (2010 film) which released in 2010.

This song got him the Best Upcoming Singer award from Radio Mirchi that year.

More opportunities came his way to work with various composers in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu.

In 2010, Sooraj accompanied his mentor and guru Shri Kudamaloor Janardhanan for a fusion ensemble at the Kovalam Literature Festival, where he was the sole singer in the group.

In 2012 he sang with the Austrian rock band Ashram Oriental Rock, a 7-member Indo-Austrian band.

Sooraj is the recipient of a Kerala State Film Award (2016), 2 Mirchi Music Awards, and a Kerala State Film Critics Award (2021).

He has sung around 300 songs in 8 languages.

Sooraj was the lead singer and has composed and performed with Masala Coffee until 2019, when he decided to dedicate more time to his own creative endeavors.

Now he performs with his own band, Sooraj Santhosh Live.

Sooraj released his independent solo EP, The Gypsy Sun, in 2020.

It's a multi-genre, multi-lingual album that consists of 5 songs.