Keralathinte Vanambadi (Nightingale of Kerala), Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra was born on 27 July 1963. Her fans call lovingly call her Chitra chechi (Big sister). She is mainly a playback singer but also sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. Chitra started her career in 1979 when she was 16 years old, over the next 4 decades she has recorded over 25,000 songs.
She has won all four south Indian state film awards, with a total of 36 different state film awards. She has received six National Film Awards, eight Film fare Awards. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2021 ( India's third highest civilian honour ) and Padma Shri in the year 2005 for her contributions to Indian music.
Chithra is married to Vijayashankar, an engineer and businessman and settled in Chennai. They had a daughter Nandana, sadly their daughter passed away by drowning while in Dubai in 2011.
The Guardian's "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear Before You Die" list included her song "Kannalane/Kehna Hi Kya" from the film Bombay (1995).
