Bombay Jayashri

Jayashri Ramnath was born into a Tamil-speaking family in Kolkata and grew up in Mumbai, the fourth generation of musicians in her family. Her parents gave her her first training; she then studied with the violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman and with T. R. Balamani, learned the veena from G. N. Dhandapani Iyer, and took Hindustani training from K. Mahavir Jaipurwale and Ajay Pohankar, along with a diploma from the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Delhi. She also studied Bharatanatyam under K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai in Mumbai, and read commerce and economics at R. A. Podar College.

She gave her first concert in 1982 and has since performed in more than thirty-five countries, at the Music Academy and Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai, the NCPA in Mumbai, the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Bengal Classical Music Festival in Dhaka, and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. She was the first Carnatic musician to perform at the Sydney Opera House.

Alongside the concert platform she sings for film. Her setting of "Pi's Lullaby" for "Life of Pi" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. She received the Padma Shri in 2021 and the Sangita Kalanidhi in December 2023.

Carnatic vocal in a quiet register, close to the text: kritis and viruttams taken at a measured pace, with the same voice used for film playback without changing its classical placement.