Tippu Offers Tips Beyond Music

It seemed to the Super Star-2 audience that the unpretentious Tippu, with his serious demeanor and  bespectacled face  would have been more ‘in place’ jotting down derivations on a blackboard than crooning into a microphone in the middle of a full-fledged orchestra.

Perhaps it is because of this quiet, laid back approach that the name Tippu takes time to  register with Kerala crowds, though he has been around in the playback scene for more than a decade.

Tippu did his 1st recording for a Tamil movie, way back in 2001 and has been steadily climbing up the ladder in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films; he has even sung for a couple of Malayalam films- ‘Chakkaramuthu’ and ‘Rock & Roll’. The favourite of most Music Directors  in the South, he is said to be AR Rehman’s first choice when it comes to trendy numbers.

Ekambaran –which is real name- now races neck to neck with Karthik in the playback music tracks. In fact both of them sang choruses for Rehman’s songs together during the early days of their career and  Rehman used to constantly mix up Karthik with Tippu.  

Tippu, whose rejuvenating voice features today in practically every hit film, can readily  adapt his voice to the ‘mood’ of the song – which ability is the secret behind his success.

His wife Harini also a playback singer, is a Rehman discovery who sang for ‘Iruvar’ ‘Mudhavalan’ etc. The musical couple ran into each other during the middle of a stage performance and love blossomed right there at the first ‘alap’ . The backstage romance however proves that though Tippu may look like a Mathematics professor, he is a hard core romantic at heart.

Tippu sang a number of his Tamil hits in his usual modest, restrained manner on the Super Star stage , subtly conveying the message to the contestants that,  though flashy get-ups and dark glasses may give one starry airs, only talent and dedication will make one a star.