Devan Ekambaram (born 25 December 1975) is an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

film

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He began his career as a playback singer in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

films, and later branched out to many other south Indian languages, such as

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

and

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

. Ekambaram has sung for over 500 films.

Education

Devan studied at

Freehold Township High School Freehold Township High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Freehold Township, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is part of the Freehold Regional High School District. The school serves st ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. He enrolled in Electrical Engineering at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, where he dropped out in his second year.

Singing career

Devan started his singing career in 1999 when he received an unexpected call from the assistants of composer

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

, inviting him for a voice audition. He went on to record his first song, "O Maria," for the film ''

Kadhalar Dhinam ''Kadhalar Dhinam'' ( ) is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language romance film written and directed by Kathir. Produced by A. M. Rathnam od Sri Surya Movies, the film stars Kunal and Sonali Bendre in the lead roles, while Nassar, Manivannan, Goundama ...

'', collaborating with Yugendran. The song leads to numerous offers from various Southern music directors. Devan's second hit came in his short rendition of "Ore Nyabagam" from the film ''

Minnale ''Minnale'' () is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language musical romance film directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon in his directoral debut. The story was written by Menon and Vipul D. Shah. The film, starring Madhavan, Abbas and Reema Sen, tells the story ...

'' (2001), composed by

Harris Jayaraj J. Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil cinema, Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Cinema of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu and two films i ...

. Following that, he sang numerous popular tracks in Tamil and Telugu films, collaborating with composers such as

Ilayaraja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil in addition to Telugu, M ...

, Vidhyasagar,

Deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...

Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...

Karthik Raja Karthik Raja (born 29 June 1973) is an Indian composer and playback singer based in Chennai. He made his debut as a film composer in the Tamil film ''Pandiyan'' (1992) and went on to score music for many critically and commercially acclaimed f ...

, and others. The song "Anbil Avan" from the film ''

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa ''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, starring Silambarasan and Trisha. Jointly produced by Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, VTV Ganesh and P. Madan und ...

'' is composed by

. Recently, he sang "Nahna na Na" for Director

Venkat Prabhu Venkat Kumar Gangai Amaren (born 7 November 1975), better known by his stage name Venkat Prabhu, is an Indian film director, actor and playback singer in Tamil cinema. In addition, he also worked in Telugu cinema, Telugu Cinema. After completing ...

's ''

Biriyani Biryani () is a mixed rice dish originating in South Asia, made with rice, meat (chicken, goat, lamb, beef) or seafood (prawns or fish), and spices. To cater to vegetarians, the meat or seafood can be substituted with vegetables or pane ...

'', composed by

. Two different remix versions of the song include "New Jack Swing Mix" and "The Extended Mix". He sang the song "

Yennai Arindhaal () (stylised on-screen as ''Yennai Arindhaal...'') is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and produced by S. Aishwarya. The film stars Ajith Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Anushka Shetty and ...

" from the movie ''

'' in collaboration with

. Lyricist Thamarai wrote this song.

Music direction

Devan debuted as a music director in the 2010 film '' Bale Pandiya''. The music album was received with a mixed response. Besides this film, Devan has composed for several short Tamil album songs and has also sung for them. * ''Bale Pandiya'' (2010) * ''Pattarai'' (2022)

Acting

Devan has performed in a few Tamil films as a character artist. Prominent ones include ''

Parthiban Kanavu '' Parthiban Kanavu '' (, , lit. Parthiban's dream) is a Tamil language, Tamil novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Details The story is a sequel to Sivagamiyin Sapatham and a curtain-raiser to Ponniyin Selvan. In 2004, Nirupama Raghavan p ...

'' (debut film), ''

Unnale Unnale ''Unnale Unnale'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language musical film, musical romantic comedy film The movie is written, cinematograph and directed by Jeeva (director), Jeeva and produced by Oscar Ravichandran. It stars Vinay Rai, Vi ...

'' and ''

Jayam Kondaan ''Jayam Kondaan'' () is a 2008 Tamil-language romantic action film directed and written by Kannan and produced by T. G. Thiyagarajan, Selvi Thiyagarajan, Sendhil Thyagarajan and T. Arjun. It stars Vinay Rai, Bhavana and Lekha Washington while ...

''. He also dubbed for various characters in films like ''Little John'' for the main character, John McKenzie, Suresh in ''

Dasavathaaram ''Dasavathaaram'' () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language epic science fiction action film directed by K. S. Ravikumar, written by Kamal Haasan and produced by V. Ravichandran under Aascar Film Pvt. Ltd. It stars Kamal Haasan in ten distinct rol ...

'', Dong Lee and other Chinese characters in ''

7aum Arivu ''7 Aum Arivu'' ( ) is a 2011 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin under Red Giant Movies. The film Suriya in dual roles, along with Shruti Ha ...

''.

Discography

Tamil

Telugu

Kannada

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ekambaram, Devan 1975 births Living people American people of Indian Tamil descent American male singers Tamil playback singers Singers from New Jersey People from Freehold Borough, New Jersey