Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra, often credited as K. S. Chithra or simply Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and carnatic musician from Kerala. Chithra also sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. She has sung more than 25,000 songs in a number of Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tulu, Rajasthani, Urdu, Sanskrit, and Badaga, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French. She is considered as the one among the "First ladies" of India who was honoured by the President of India
Chithra is a recipient of six National Film Awards (most by any female singer in India), eight Filmfare Awards South and 36 different state film awards. She has won all the four south Indian state film awards. She was honored with India's civilian honor Padma Shri in 2005. She is the first Indian woman who was honored by House of Commons, British Parliament, United Kingdom in 1997. She is the only singer from India who was honored by the Government of China at the Qinghai International Music and Water Festival in 2009. she is the only singer from the South India who has received the MTV Video Music Award – International Viewer's Choice at Metropolitan Opera House, New York, United States. In 2018, She was honoured by the Mr. Craig Coughlin, Speaker of the General Assembly, New Jersey, United States. In 2019, she was honoured by the Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, sovereign ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah and is a member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates, UAE for successfully completing 40 Years in Indian Film Industry. She is the only South Indian female singer who has presented her maiden concert at the world's prestigious concert hall Royal Albert Hall in London in 2001. Her song "Kannalane/Kehna Hi Kya" from the film Bombay (1995) was included in England The Guardian's "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear Before You Die" list.
