Why Sooryagayathri, 13, is touted as junior MS

Sooryagayathri, the young vocalist, hailing from a small village in Vadakara has taken the social media by storm and her YouTube videos have garnered more than 150 million viewers. The devotional songs -- bhajans and keerthans - sung impeccably by this 13-year-old singer have conquered the hearts of not only spiritual masters but also music lovers all over the globe.

While the sound track of poet–saint Thulasi Das’s ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ sung by legendary Carnatic vocalist MS Subbalakshmi has less than 6 lakh views, Sooryagayathri’s soulful rendition of the same has garnered an unbelievable 2.4 crore viewers on YouTube. The ‘Ganesha Pancharatnam’, ‘Bhaygyatha Lakshmi Baramma..’, ‘Sriramachandra Kripalu’, ‘Ayigiri Nandini’ are some of the most popular bhajans by Sooryagayathri which has crores of viewers.

We are not presenting this young singer as the ‘talent of the future’; instead Sooryagayathri is truly the ‘star of the present’ who has conquered millions of hearts with her sweet voice.

More than 300 bhajan concerts

Sooryagayathri is a class-8 student at the Purameri Kadathanattu Raja’s Higher Secondary School, and most of her classmates hardly know that she is a well-known singer who has admirers from all over the country. Her neighbours and people in the locality too are unaware that this girl is hailed by many as the ‘junior MS’.

You may not have seen Sooryagayathri in any of the popular reality TV shows, neither has she performed in any award nights/stage shows. The teenager refrains from participating in the school youth festivals as well. So chances are meager that those who believe that new talents are created on stages like these would have heard the name Sooryagayathri. However, millions of admirers of devotional songs and bhajans, who reside outside Kerala, know this young singer very well. Sooryagayathri has already held more than 300 bhajan nights in almost all the states around the country. Besides, the teenager has held concerts at countries like Dubai, Singapore, South Africa and Trinidad. It must seem strange that she has conducted only less than 15 singing programmes in her home state Kerala. Sooryagayathri’s father PV Anilkumar, who is a ‘mridangam’ artist himself, often accompanies his daughter on stage during the two-hour long concerts. Her uncle Sunilkumar plays violin and the tabla is by Prasanth Nettoor. Shailesh Marar too joins with the rhythm pad.

Popular in neighbouring states

Even though Sooryagayathri’s rendition of ‘Maveli naadu vanidum kaalam’, the evergreen Onam song, has more than a million viewers on YouTube, many of her admirers seldom realise that she is a Malayali girl. When she beautifully sang the Telugu keerthan ‘Brahman okate’ written by the Telugu sage- oet Annamacharya, who lived in the 15th century, along with Bangalore native Rahul Vellal, many thought that she belonged to Andhra Pradesh. Few would say that she is not a Tamil girl after listening to her latest video in which Sooryagayathri perfectly sings the Tamil lines of ‘Kurai ondrum illai murai Moorthy Kanna’ by C Rajagopalachari. Admirers write praising and often emotional comments below the young girl’s YouTube videos.

Admirers seek the wonder girl

Lots of admirers reach Sooryagayathri’s home at Purameri from other states just to see this singing sensation. Most of them want to listen to Sooryagayathri sing, some of them travel thousands of miles just to congratulate their little vocalist and give her presents.

“Usually when people call saying that they wish to see Soorya, we ask them to attend an upcoming concert. We don’t give strangers the route to our home. However, they would somehow reach here just to see her,” says Divya, Sooryagayathri’s mother.

Once, a 60-year-old man came all the way from Chennai to meet Soorya. He caught a taxi from the airport and headed directly to Soorya’s house. He kept on saying that Soorya was his granddaughter. He had hoped that there would be some hotels near the singer’s house where he could spend the night. But at Purameri, a small hamlet, he couldn’t find one. At last the family had to host the old man who had come all the way from Chennai to listen to Sooryagayathri sing.

“A couple who came from the US said that they had come home for the holidays just to meet Soorya. Last month a group of 12 youngsters, who are IT professionals, came from Bangalore. How can we ever repay such love?” Wonders Divya.

Teacher and guide

It was Soorya’s LKG teacher who noticed that little Soorya used to hum in class. Instead of chiding her, the teacher had encouraged her student to continue singing. That was how Soorya’s parents decided to give their daughter training in classical music.

Nishant Nadapuram , who was Anil’s friend became her first trainer when she was just four years old. Presently she is trained by S Anandi, a music teacher in Kozhikode. It was only when she was spotted by Kuldeep M Pai, a noted music composer of devotional songs that everyone began to notice the talented singer in Sooryagayathri. When Kuldeep was offered to compose the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ for a popular mobile phone company, he had decided to make it unique by making a kid render the Chalisa. That is how he found Sooryagayathri. She had recorded the Chalisa after rigorously practising for around 108 days. After the recording, Kuldeep thought that Soorya’s incredible talents should not be limited to a small advertisement. So he uploaded the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ along with the video of Sooryagayathri recording it in his studio, in his own YouTube channel. Ganesha Pancharatnam too followed, and Sooryagayathri soon became the little singing sensation on YouTube.

Kuldeep had also introduced many young singers like Rahul Vellal, Bhavya Ganapathi and Raghuram Manikandan, who is a Malayali, through his YouTube channel. Though all these videos became immensely popular, it hardly created the impact that Sooryagayathri’s videos had created on the social media.

No to competition

Born to a family of artists, Sooryagayathri, vouches that her family has been her greatest source of inspiration. Anilkumar’s father Balachandran was a renowned dance teacher and mother Thankamani used to sing. Soorya’s mother Divya pens beautiful poems. Soorya loves all the songs which are written by her mother and composed by her father. In fact she is devoted to her family and reveres her parents, who guide her to be infallible, as Gods. Every time she goes out, she does not forget to seek her parents’ blessing by touching their feet.

At a young age itself, Sooryagayathri has acquired the will power and determination to take strong decisions in her life. The decision to refrain from taking part in school youth festival was one such decision. Soorya amassed trophies and prizes in youth festivals and other singing competitions until she reached class 6. One day when she declared that she wouldn’t compete in singing competitions anymore, her friends and teachers who had encouraged her were stunned.

Once when she visited Thiruvannamalai Ramanashramam to hold a concert, she met a sage whom she had met years ago in Chennai. When the sage asked about her well being, Soorya told him that she had participated in 9 items in the school youth festival and had won prizes in all of it. He then asked whether she participates in the competitions just to deny her friends the chance to win prizes. “God gave you lots of opportunities. Your songs have reached every corner of the world. Now you shouldn’t sing for trophies,” advised the sage.

His words were a turning point in Sooryagayathri’s singing career, and the 12 year old didn’t think twice before deciding that she wouldn’t take part in school youth festivals or other singing competitions.

Copious blessings

When Soorya willingly gave up prizes at competitions, life offered her even greater rewards. More than just luck, Soorya likes to call it the blessings of Lord Almighty. She recalls a recent incident where she felt the immense grace of God. It was only a few weeks ago that her trainer S Anandi taught her the keerthan ‘Bhavamu Lona’ composed by Annamacharya. Teaching the keerthan, the teacher said to her disciple, “At the Tirupati temple, only the keerthans of Annamacharya could be sung.

Only the great singers are invited to sing there.” The next day after Soorya learned the keerthan, she received a phone call from the authorities at the Tirupati temple, inviting the young vocalist to sing in front of the deity. “More than mere luck, I like to call it God’s grace,” says Sooryagayathri.

On September 18 Sooryagayathri will render Annamacharya’s keerthans at the Tirupati temple in her soulful voice. Soorya and her family are happy that her music teacher’s prediction had come true, and dedicates all these blessings to the Gods whom she has been praising through her innumerable songs.

Email – sooryagayathriofficial@gmail.com.