Minmini

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Minmini is a singer from South India who became known above all as a playback singer for films. She was born on 12 August 1970 as P. J. Rosily in Keezhmedu, near Aluva in Kerala, and was the youngest of four sisters. At the age of five she began singing with Kalabhavan, a local orchestra. She made her film debut in 1989 with the Malayalam film Swagatham, for which she sang three songs.

Music and breakthrough

In 1992 she moved into Tamil film. The composer Ilaiyaraaja brought her to Meera and gave her the name Minmini, which sounded more attractive to a Tamil audience. Her big breakthrough came that same year with Chinna Chinna Aasai from the film Roja, the debut work of the composer A. R. Rahman. The song became so popular that the place where it was recorded, the Paana Theertham Falls in the Tirunelveli district, attracted so many tourists that the government of Tamil Nadu closed the waterfalls to visitors for almost nine years to protect nature. The song also appeared in a Hindi version as Choti Si Asha.

Influence

Minmini sang mainly in Tamil, in songs by Ilaiyaraaja and Rahman, but also in Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada. In 1993 she lost her voice during a performance in London and could hardly speak for years. After treatment her voice returned, and in 2015 she made a comeback with Kanmaniye in the film Mili. With her husband, the keyboard player Joy Mathew, she founded a music school in Kochi.

Listening

In School of Rock

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