Top Tamil Songs of April 2023

Here are the best Tamil songs released for the month of April 2023. 

If you are a musician submit your new music here.

1. Naan Gaali

Singers - Sean Roldan, Kalyani Nair 

Lyricist - Mohan Rajan 

Programmed, Arranged and Produced by Sean Roldan 

Genre: Filmi Melody/Pop

Sean Roldan has been a busy man of late composing songs for Coke Studio Tamil, but more than the songs there I have been incredibly impressed with his score in this movie 'Goodnight'. It is a movie that is being raved about thanks to a great screenplay and acting performance by Manikandan. 

Kollywood for ages has been dependent on songs and background scores to elevate a movie and its messaging and Sean Roldan like before has set out in the right direction for this movie. His songs and score for 'Jai Bhim' in 2021 were excellent and with 'Goodnight' his songs have created enough hype for me to watch the movie too. I have long been proclaiming that the trio of Pradeep Kumar, Sean Roldan and Santhosh Narayanan is the greatest thing that happened to Tamil music since 2010, and with all of them rising, Sean stands out as the closest we have to Ilaiyaraja in terms of the core melody of a song. Sean's formula for success is simple - to keep the song's melody pure and rich. 

He does that with this amazing song and with his unique vocal tone we only fall in love more. Kalyani Nair the multi-faceted musician joins on board as a vocalist and she fully handles the arrangements of the strings section. It is outstanding in the stanzas, interludes and especially the outro. The song is programmed, arranged and produced by Sean Roldan. The lovely whistle and in close quarters we have Ashwin Suresh playing the acoustic guitars, and he also plays the electric guitar. Watch out for the fantastic keys that come in during the opening lines.

When he sings "Balcony Kathula, vasam than kooduthu" we hear the fantastic strings in the background thanks to the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, and it is composer Balasubramanian G who is the Orchestra Coordinator. The song's tone reminds me of Sean's score for the album "Power Paandi". The supreme convergence of guitars, strings, keys and rhythms is just like a symphony of love. The interlude which has the guitars playing and the mild pauses on the drums and strings reminds of Genius Ilaiyaraja's works as well, especially when you hear Kalyani's humming. 

The stanza picks off from that humming and we are taken back to the 80s and 90s when Janaki used to dominate in such songs. I have been critical of Sean's vocal performances of late especially when the notes are high-pitched, but here he is on fire. The line "heartu rateu eruthe, fuse pona lifelum, bulbu brightu aaguthe" is magical, to say the least. It makes my life and day brighten up like a bulb when I hear these notes and the strings section works overtime in the background. Mohan Raja has shown his wittiness with these fantastic lyrics. 

The sorcery of the guitars and female humming continues in the second interlude and I am thankful Sean went for two stanzas, something I miss in today's songs. Aswin George is the recording engineer at Sounds Right and the song is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan at 20db with Paul Daniel assisting this session. Songs of the Maestro like "Rojan poo aadivanthathu" are what I keep getting reminded of when I hear this phenomenal chart-busting song. Thank you Sean Roldan and team. 

2. Timeless Love

Song Composed by: Ilaiyaraaja 

Arranged and Produced by: Yuvan Shankar Raja 

Lyrics: Madan Karky 

Singer: Yuvan Shankar Raja, Kapil Kapilan 

Genre: Blues/Pop

I played this song with very low expectations because the music has been decent if not very good in a Venkat Prabhu film. As the song began I was slowly intrigued and by the time we hit the stanza, I was sold. The song had credits mentioning Yuvan Shankar Raja and I came to know that he is the man behind the terrific arrangements and production. 

Kudos to Yuvan for coming up with the goods again, but little did I know that the song was composed by the Maestro Ilaiyaraja. The stanza is clearly in his style and it also shows what he is still capable of. Napoleon's seductive flu solo plays in the beginning, almost like "Elangathu Veesuthe". 

Kapil Kapilan lends his astonishing voice and he shines in such vocally-demanding songs, we have a fantastic Blues-pop song here. The finger flicks, the Saxophone and the Upright bass are so intricately arranged. The song feels very much like Maestro's 'Puthu Mappillaikku" from 'Aboorva Sagotharargal'. 

The Trumpets and Trombone are played by Babu while the Saxophone is executed by Raja, and they all come alive in the interlude. The melody in the stanza is the highlight and who other than Ilaiyaraja could come up with a tune like this? My favourite lines are " pencil aale enthan vazhvai maatri theetinaay...kalloori naatkil yaavilum en thogai aaginay". As a music lover and a music journalist, it is for these moments that I live and pray. These lines to me feel like a bit of Bihag Ragam. Kapil Kapilan, who I have long been claiming as one of India's finest vocalists now performs for Ilaiyaraja and with this kind of panache. 

The second interlude is a supreme coming together of all live instruments and feels like a fine piece of Theatre music. The brisk tempo drops just in time for the start of the stanza, and that is fantastically innovative. The male harmonies are by Sam, Sarath Santhosh, Narayanan. The song mildly also reminds me "Oho Megham vanthatho". M Kumaraguruparan has done the mixing and mastering. 

3. Nee Singam Dhaan 

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman 

Singer Sid Sriram 

Lyrics Vivek 

Genre: Anthem/ Jazz-Pop

These are songs that prove to all his critics (sometimes even me) that AR Rahman has still got what it takes to compose fantastic songs, although 3 decades of mindblowing scores only mean that he needs to prove nothing more to anyone or himself too.

I do like one more fact about this song, and that is that Sid Sriram doesn't overdo his ghamakas. He is loud and sends a shiver down your spine, creating an adrenaline rush with his vocals. Vivek's lyrics are excellent and to the point and my favourite line musically and lyrically is "andha aagayam pothatha paravai ondru" . The lyrics keep getting better with "kadalal theeratha erumbin thagangal" are so relevant to the protagonist's state of mind and truth. The Keys and rhythms are engaging and ante up the emotions.

The male chorus is a great way to amplify the effect of the lines and we have Sreekanth Hariharan, Aravind Srinivas, Sarath Santhosh, Deepak Blue, Shenbagaraj, Narayanan Ravishankar and Sudharsan Hemaram on additional vocal duties. AR Rahman shows superb vision and arrangements as he gets the Dallas Horns to play the Brass section in the interlude. Nikhil Ram is the solo flautist. Krishna Kishore, a young talented music composer himself, plays the thumping drums. 

I love the structure of the stanza and it ends well with a male chorus humming. There is more delight in the form of the Brass section in the second interlude and AR Rahman impresses with a different stanza the second time. I believe this is his best song in 2023 despite all the hype of PS2. A.H.Kaashif is the music supervisor and Karthik Sekaran is the project supervisor. We have the talented Nakul Abhyankar doing all the additional programming along with TR Krishna Chetan. 

The sound engineers are Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh and Satish. The song is mixed by Nitish R Kumar and mastered by Suresh Permal with Riyasdeen Riyan on Apple Digital Master. 

4. Imaigalo

Song composed, arranged and produced by AniVee

Performed by AniVee 

Lyricist: Ahamed Shyam

Genre: Semi-classical Pop

AniVee as he calls himself creates a modern and enjoyable pop song with a core that is entrenched in Carnatic music. The song immediately gives me a feeling that there is a Nalinakanthi Ragam influence. AniVee brings in flavours of Carnatic music with his vocal style of delivery. Chris Jason is a very respected musician in the Chennai circle, and he shows why with his guitar strumming here, he also is the bassist in the song.  

Anivee is brimming with confidence as he does a fantastic ghamaka on " iravellam vaan theduthe". He does all the programming, and arrangements along with composition and vocals. Ahamed Shyam has penned the lyrics. Another producer from Chennai Michael Timothy does all the additional programming. AFter that blistering swara rendition, aided by keys and rhythm programming, the tempo drops, and the Tabla by Ajai Desai set in. That transition was magical. 

The stanza is beautiful, and I wonder why I haven't featured AniVee before if this guy has so much potential. He has this mild smirk while singing a particular line reminding me of the great SPB. Can you hear that mild Veena in the background? Well, I did and it is played by Latha Henry. The song I must agree has fantastic production and it is AR Rahmaneque in its treatment. AniVee also plays the flute with Svarathmika Sureshkumar on backing vocals. Sakkthivel has mastered the song, and Hariharan has recorded and mixed the song. 

5. Yaadhum Kanaa 

Vocals by Sathya Prakash & Kalyani Nair 

Song Composed & Produced by Balaji Gopinath 

Lyrics by Antony Faze 

Programmed, mixed & mastered by Balaji Gopinath 

Genre: Indie pop

Balaji Gopinath reminds me of the fact that a music composer needs only a good tune, a keyboard and good vocalists to create a memorable song. Last time he had a fantastic single called "Sarale" sung by Haricharan and Aarthi MN Ashwin. Now he ropes in two more amazing vocalists in Kalyani Nair and Sathya Prakash, and the melody is heart-warming as expected.

Balaji lends his skill in arrangements for other music directors as well from time to time and so in his score he aligns all those skills of programming too to bring about a good production. The Keys are just laying the groundwork and then humming by Sathya Prakash and Kalyani draws you further into the song. The first two lines are the clincher with fantastic notes and are sung alternatively by the lead vocalists, "Yaadhum kanaa, un kaigal korka, yaavum vina naan kora". 

Balaji I think is very comfortable and committed in weaving notes which are less predictable for a listener and tougher to execute for a vocalist. I noticed this in his previous single and here too whether it is the pallavi, anupallavi or the stanza with "minnalai ennaiye kadhal thaakida" you can feel this. Antony Faze has done a brilliant job writing these deep and meaningful words. 

The strong points are the lead vocalists' terrific delivery, their vibrato and the arrangements, especially vocal layers. 

6. Muttakannu Muniyamma

Music, Lyrics: Gaana Sudhakar

Vocals: Gaana Sudhakar, Srinisha Jeyaseelan 

Music Production and Arrangement: Karthick Devaraj 

Genre: Gaana-Blues Fusion

Gaana Sudhakar invokes his inner Santhosh Narayanan in this terrific gaana-pop fusion. He composes the song and wrote such amazingly funny lyrics for this one. People tend to disregard the role of production in a song and this is a fantastic example of how solid production can boost the quality of a song. Well done Karthick Devaraj for his arrangements, programming and production. Karthick is the shining armour in this song. 

The live instrumentalists are at the top of their game and have created such intricate layers and tones. Naveen Napier as the bassist, and Chris Jason on acoustic guitar sizzle along and westernise this local gaana song. The highlight is the vocal harmonies that come and go singing "muniyamma" and "saniyamma". The interlude has a very emotional Shehnai playing along with Indian rhythms played by Sharath. 

When Gaana Sudhakar sings" ABCD ungappan thaadi", I realised it is the participant from two years ago on Sun Super Singer and although his singing and lyrics have never been astonishing, this time he does a decent job. David Joseph plays the drums and the song is elevated when Srinisha Jayaseelan comes in as the female lead vocalist. She is a very versatile singer and her delivery, the diction of madras basha is flawless. The outro with the fast-paced guitars and all the Indian rhythms makes you want to shake your legs. Sai Shravanam has mixed and mastered the song with finesse. Hari and Vishnu are the recording engineers at 20db Studios and Mystic Room respectively. 

7. Kanaana Kanmani 

Music: G. V. Prakash Kumar 

Lyrics: Snehan 

Vocals: Balaji Sri

Genre: Folk Melody

He was one of the better performers and participants at the Super Singer contest on Vijay TV 2 years ago and Balaji Sri is proving that with such performances like this for GV Prakash. The song is composed, arranged and programmed by GV Prakash for the movie album "Rudhran". I love the tone of the song which takes us back to rural TN in the early late 90s and early 2000s. 

The sound design is modern but the use of the flute solo, the melody and Balaji's style of singing is quite rural folkish. The acoustic guitars and background strings make the song sound so rich. The interlude has this electric violin in solo mode and this is where I get a sense of some Suddha Dhanyasi Ragam and this is followed by the flute solo. Snehan writes some excellent words here and one of my favourite lines is "pinju viral pidikkayila, nenjukkulla mazha pozhiyum, konjum kili kooda irunthal , sorgam sonthamagum". 

8. Oru Naal Solvaya

Music Composed, Produced & Sung by Nishanth Vijay

Lyrics by Debora

Language: Tamil

Genre: Indie Pop

Once again we have a new talent here as Nishanth Vijay goes almost solo in this refreshing project. It has been a while since I featured a Tamil song in this weekly list of the best. Nishanth rightfully earns his way into this week's rankings with a supremely produced, composed, and performed song.  

Debora is the lyricist who has penned the words very articulately. We get to hear Nishanth singing with all his heart and his ghamakas come out well, especially in lines like " mouna mozhi pesum kaadhal dhaan puriyaadhaa". The Violin Solo stands out in multiple segments and it is played by Hari Krishna who sizzles in the interlude mainly. The stanza sees other rhythms go silent for a bit when the guitar riffs alone decorate the background, and then once again we land on the opening lines. I do sense some Yamunakalyani from time to time. 

The song has some well-arranged vocal harmonies and Nishanth sings the high-pitched lines particularly well. One gripe that I can think of, is that maybe his diction of Tamil could have been better, like in the line "kanavaale moozhgiya kangal", the stress on the last word sounds wrong. 

9. Asukunu 

Music - Tajnoor 

Lyricist - Inba Kalil 

Singer - Anitha 

Genre: Folk/Dance

This came as a total surprise and I had to feature it this month. The singer is Anotha, with Tajnoor being the composer and Inba Kalil being the lyricist. I haven't featured either of them before. The instrument arrangements are top-notch and score higher than the melody of the song as well.  

Proof of that also comes in the interlude with the guitars and then the Kazoo. Anitha excels at singing, giving a folkish flavour and oozing confidence with the higher-pitched notes. Taj Noor does quite well in many elements and the humming "ting ting ting ting tiyaana" also sounds quite interesting. 

@tajnoormd 

10. Ennadi Kannama

Song composed by Santhosh Dhayanidhi 

Lyrics: A.Pa.Raja 

Singer: Aditya RK 

Choir: The minuets 

Genre: Dance-Pop

This composer is one of the brightest among the younger lot of musicians in the Tamil indie space. Here he scores for a movie called 'Baba Black Sheep' and one of the factors working well for the song is AdithyaRK's voice. Santhosh does the composition and he handles the vital elements like the synths and rhythms programming. 

Keba Jeremiah's guitars keep supporting with that gentle strumming but it is Adithya's vocal magnetism that drives the likability factor for the song. We nicely get another layer of vocals just beneath the lead vocals and that sounds interesting. A.Pa.Raja gets the lyrics done with some wittiness. 

The interlude has a very nice female choir called The Minuets, who perform in perfect unison and the scale is probably representative of Ragam Naatai. I love the sound of the school bell in the background as we come to the start of the stanza. I loved the lines "iruthi varaiyil varuven, vayathellam verum enngal" musically and lyrically. The following part has this nice folk rhythm making it quite dance-worthy that goes "exam a kalavaram aakatha". Pradeep Menon has mixed the song, with mastering by Suresh Permal. The recording engineers are Manoj Raman, Pradeep Menon and Mani Ratnam

@sathosh_dhayanidhi @a.pa.raja @adithyark.music @kebajer

11. Koyil Silaye

Composed by Vijay Antony

Written by Arun Bharathi 

Sung by Nivas 

Programmed by: Solomon, Tony Mathew 

Vijay Antony was a music composer before becoming a well-known actor, and many still feel he is a better musician than an actor. We are not going to engage in that debate here, but as far as this song is concerned Viajy does quite well, ticking all the boxes for a good song. This gives me impressions of Keeravani Ragam and it is sung with great passion and gusto by Nivas. 

We have some strings section in the background but the solo violin is played by Amaraj. It reminds me of Ilaiyaraja's "Povoma Urgolam" owing to the Keeravni influence. The chorus humming by Vikaram Pitty, Balaji Sri, Aravind Karneeswaran, Lavita Loba, Devu Mathew & Charumathi looks grand and feels imposing, and then we have the Oud, Saz and Bazuki all played by Amalraj. Kudos to Vijay for having such elaborate interludes and arrangements. Lalith Talluri shows up with a flute solo in the second interlude. Nivas performs wonderfully, exploring the high pitch quite effectively in the stanza. The song is mixed and mastered by AM Rahmathulla, and the recording engineer is S Chandrasekhar. 

12. Thayaga Naan

Composed & Arranged by Jen Martin 

Lyrics - Vishnu Edavan 

Singer - Sathya Narayanan 

These two guys have done some astounding work in the growing Tamil Indie scene, and I have featured both Jen Martin and Sathya Narayanan. This is now the time for Jen to compose songs and BGM for a movie that is being talked about quite well i.e. 'Dada'. 

Sathya sings this with such poise and an emotionally apt tone that you will feel the sadness and ache of the protagonist. The lyrics convey the message to the point thanks to Vishnu Edavan. The chorus is performed by the famous Elfe Choir and conducted by Roe Vincent. The same notes are now played brilliantly by Nathan on the flute and we get the bass guitar funkiness from Judin Finny. 

I just love the singing, the notes and the lyrics when Sathya sings " Vaa da en magane, thanthai ena pathavi kudu". The strings can be heard close to the of the song thanks to the Budapest Symphonic Orchestra Coordinated by Balasubramaniam G. The baking vocalists are Jen Martin, Suprajaa Sairam, Lavanya Rajeevi Ganesh and Gomathi Ram. 

We have the acoustic guitars played by Chris Jason and Sanjay Jonathan, with Nathan also handling the Clarinet. The song is simple in structure with a relatively short stanza or maybe a bridge section, but the production is excellent with Jen, Sathya and Prince Melvin taking over. All additional arrangements are done by Stanley Xavier and Sathya. The song is mixed and masted by Harishankar