‘Nobody Can Sing That Song With Such Grace’: Harish Sivaramakrishnan Lauds Nanjiamma

The 68th National Awards were announced on July 23 and Nanjiamma won the Best Playback Singer Female award for the film Ayyappanum Koshyum. Musician Linu Lal commented on Nanjiamma’s award and it created a lot of controversies. Linu said, “Doesn’t this recognition feel an insult to those who have dedicated their lives to music?”

Now, Harish Sivaramakrishnan has come out in support of Nanjiamma and has shared a long post on social media. In his post, Harish said that she got the recognition she deserved.

In his long post, Harish wrote, “A distinction between simple and bad and hard and good is not possible in music. He also finds it difficult to sing many simple things. Practicing Carnatic music is good training and will help you a lot to become a good singer.

“But it is a big misconception that all branches of music can be mastered only by classical music training. It has been said in the past that if you learn Carnatic music you can sing anything – it is wrong. Each style of music has its own unique methods. Context switching is very difficult. Many people who sing Carnatic music for real cannot sing ghazal well. Many people who sing ghazals well cannot sing folk songs,” he said.

“The song recorded by singer Nanjiamma is one of the best in her music genre. Perhaps no one else can sing that song with such grace. That is why they got the recognition they deserved,” added Harish.

He concluded his post by writing, “Ps: Disagree with the responses that it is a bounty given to a tribal person and that it is an award given to cite a tribal person. She got this recognition because she is a very good singer in her particular genre of music.”

Here’s the post:

Harish Sivaramakrishnan also asked, “What is the chaturvarnya of music?”