Smt. Sunanda started learning Carnatic music at the age of 5. She gave her maiden concert at the Poornatrayeesha temple in Tripunithura, Kerala in 1978 when she was only twelve years old. She made her playback debut in 1984 under the baton of Thiru Ilaiyaraja in AVM’s film Pudumai Penn directed by Thiru Bharati Raja. This was the duet with Jayachandran titled “Kaadal Mayakkam”.
Subsequently she went on to record more than 300 songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Oriya. She has recorded solos and duets with K.J. Yesudas, P. Jayachandran, S.P. Balasubramaniam, S. Janaki and other leading singers, and worked with music directors such as Ilaiyaraja, M.S. Viswanathan, Salil Chowdhury, A.R. Rahman, Deva, S.A. Rajkumar and L. Vaidyanathan.
Some of her memorable songs are “Shenbagame Shenbagame” in Enga Ooru Paattukkaaran, “Mannavaa Mannavaa” in Walter Vetrivel, “Poove Semboove” in Sollathudikkidu Manassu etc.
She has sung in several devotional and light music cassettes of HMV, Music Today, Sangeetha etc.
She released in June 2003 under the aegis of Music Today a collection of Sanskrit slokas set to Carnatic tunes called “Nitya Prarthana”, which has been well received.
She regularly broadcasts over Doordarshan and AIR, and is well traveled, having visited the Gulf countries, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to participate in light music programmes.
Click here to see the review about Sunanda in "The Hindu" Newspaper