Yuvan Shankar Raja

Profile Overview

Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979; known officially as Abdul Haliq), also known as U1, is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Western music elements and often credited with having introduced hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu which included mixed EDM and jazz. He is frequently referred to as the "BGM King" of Tamil film music. Yuvan has won two Filmfare Awards South, five Mirchi Music Awards South, three Vijay Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Within a span of 25 years, Yuvan has worked on over 190 films. Being the youngest son of composer Ilaiyaraaja, he began his musical career in 1996, at the age of 17, when he composed the film score for Aravindhan. He got his breakthrough with the soundtracks for the films Dheena (2001) and Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002) soundtrack, becoming one of Tamil cinema's most sought-after composers by the mid-2000s. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil in 2004 for his score in the drama 7G Rainbow Colony. In 2006, he became the only Indian composer to win the Cyprus International Film Festival Award for the soundtrack of Raam. He also won the Filmfare Special Award – South in 2009 for his Telugu musical Oy!.
In 2015, Yuvan created his own music label, U1 Records and in 2017, he started his own film production studio, YSR Films.