KK Dies At 53: Facts About The Renowned Playback Singer-Songwriter

On Tuesday, renowned playback singer and songwriter Krishnakumar Kunnath, also known as KK, died in Kolkata. He was 53 years old and is known to have died of cardiac arrest after a college concert at Nazrul Mancha in south Kolkata.

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The "Yaaron" singer gave a nearly hour-long performance at the concert. According to reports, after arriving at his hotel, he felt ill, following which he was immediately taken to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead. His body will be sent for a post-mortem on Wednesday.

Early Life

Krishnakumar Kunnath was born on 23 August 1968. He was raised in New Delhi by Malayali parents, C. S. Menon and Kunnath Kanakavalli. KK attended Mount St Mary's School in Delhi and graduated from Kirori Mal College at Delhi University.

During the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he sang the song "Josh of India" in support of the Indian cricket team. In 1991, KK married his childhood sweetheart, Jyothy and had a son named Nakul Krishna Kunnath and a daughter named Tamara Kunnath.

The playback singer had recorded songs in many languages that include Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Odia and Assamese.

Facts About KK

1. KK used to work in the hotel industry before moving to Mumbai in the year 1994 to pursue his dream of music.
2. He was once spotted by another veteran singer Hariharan while singing in Delhi, upon which Hariharan encouraged KK to relocate to Mumbai.
3. In a famous 1996 movie Maachis, KK sang a small portion of the song 'Chhod Aaye Hum'.
4. During his struggling days, KK used to sing commercial jingles. He sang around 3500 jingles across 11 languages.
5. KK gained fame after singing 'Tadap Tadap Ke' for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,' a film starring Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bacchan, and Ajay Devgn.
6. His debut album 'Pal' was released in 1996 by Sony Music. The two songs "Pal" and "Yaaron" from the album gained much popularity, for which he also received a Screen award as the best singer.
7. After an eight-year gap, KK released his second album, Humsafar, on 22 January, 2008.
8. Some of the popular songs by KK are 'Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai' from the movie Woh Lamhe, 'Tadap Tadap' from the movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and 'Mat Aazma Re' from the movie Murder 3.
9. Kishore Kumar had a big influence on KK.
10. KK was not a classically trained musician. He went to a music school for a few days but realised that he was able to learn a song just by hearing it.