Malgudi Subha is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n playback singer

Playback singer

A playback singer is a singer whose singing is prerecorded for use in movies. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras, while the actual singer does not appear on screen.-South Asia:...

. She has recorded songs in Telugu

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

, Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, Kannada

Kannada language

Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...

, Malayalam

Malayalam language

Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

 and Hindi. In a career spanning for two decades, she sang more than 2500 songs.

She counts Usha Uthup

Usha Uthup

Usha Uthup is a popular Indian pop, jazz and playback singer. She is well known for popular hits in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.She started her Bollywood playback career, when she sang an English verse in hit song, "Dum maro dum"" in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, and went on work with music...

 among her rolemodels.

She began her career by providing vocals for ad jingles composed by A. R. Rahman

A. R. Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

, Viji Manuel etc. She debuted as a playback singer through the film Nadodi Thendral, with music by Ilayaraja. Ace Indian composer A. R. Rahman

A. R. Rahman

Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...

's debut album, Set Me Free (also called Shubhaa Set Me Free) had all its songs sung by Malgudi Shubha. The album which was released in early nineties by some local labels went unnoticed, but became a good seller when it was re-released in 1996 by the label Magnasound.

Her first successful album, Chikpak Chikbhum, which was released in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

, sold eight lakh

Lakh

A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...

 copies. The songs were composed by Raj-Koti

Raj-Koti

Raj-Koti is a music composer duo of Telugu movies, active during 1980s and 1990s. It consisted of Saluri Koteswara Rao son of veteran music director Saluri Rajeswara Rao and Thotakura Somaraju son of veteran music director T. V. Raju. Later, the two split up and started composing independently...

, who were assisted by A. R. Rahman.

She has also appeared as a judge on the Malayalam language

Malayalam language

Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

 music competition program Idea Star Singer

Idea Star Singer

Idea Star Singer is a popular Malayalam music reality-television competition, broadcast on the Malayalam channel Asianet and is sponsored by Idea Cellular Limited. The current season of the show is aired from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m [8.00 pm to 9.30 pm from Monday, 19th July 2010],, Monday...

. She is presently one of the Judges in Star Singer 2 (Kannada), airing on Asianet Suvarna

Asianet Suvarna

Asianet Suvarna is a Kannada language channel owned by Asianet Communications Limited, aimed at the Kannada-speaking population in the south Indian state of Karnataka and neighbouring regions. Launched with the tag line "24 carat manoranjane", the channel airs soap operas, talk shows, news...

 from 7-8 PM on weekdays.She has also appeared as a judge on the tamil music competition program "SUPER SINGER JUNIOR 2".

The South-Indian actress Priyamani

Priyamani

Priya Vasudev Mani Iyer, better known by her stage name Priyamani is an Indian film actress and model who has appeared in several Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films...

is her niece.