Playback singer Nithya Mammen’s scores a hit with ‘Alaare Neeyenile…’ from the film ‘Member Rameshan 9aam Ward’

Singer Nithya Mammen is riding high on the success of her recently-released song, ‘Alaare Neeyenile…’ from Malayalam film Member Rameshan 9aam Ward. The film, due for release last year, is scheduled to hit theatres soon. “When the song was done, I liked it and I knew people would like it but not this much. My inbox is filled with covers of that song,” she says.

The song is her second outing with composer Kailas Menon; she made her debut as playback singer in Edakkad Battalion 06 (2019) for which he composed music. Another song of hers that did well is ‘Vathikkalu Vellaripravu…’ from Sufiyum Sujathayum. She has also sung the Tamil and Telugu versions of the song.

Nithya landed her first song rather serendipitously when Menon called her to sing the track (dummy version of the song) of ‘Hima Mazhayayi Varu…’ in Edakkad…

“His mother came across a video of me singing; she told him about me, and that’s how he asked me for voice demos, thus leading to my first break.”

Producer Sandra Thomas and Menon liked what they heard and retained Nithya’s version.

Though lockdown brought the film industry to a standstill, Nithya is happy about the chances she has had.

“I got to work with music director M Jayachandran (Sufiyum Sujathayum) and Ishaan Chabbra for Abrid Shine’s Kung Fu Master. Both were such wonderful opportunities; with Chabbra, the work was done remotely. I sang the song with Karthik and though we did not ‘sing together’, it is an experience I’m happy about.”

It is not all film music; she recently sang for music director Mejjo Joseph’s single, ‘Mayathe’, along with Harish Sivaramakrishnan.

She has been singing covers for her YouTube channel for a while, though she confesses that it did not have many viewers. All that changed post her playback debut. “‘Hima Mazhavayi Varu’ changed everything.”

Music is not new to her, she has always been singing and even has her own YouTube channel, which she started a few years ago. She sang covers on it and on which, she confesses, didn’t have too many people listening. But it blew up after her debut, “Until then not too many were listening, but ‘Hima Mazhayayi Varu…’ changed everything,” she says.

Nithya had been learning Hindustani music back home in Thiruvananthapuram; which she took up again on moving to Kochi, with Bernie of composer duo Bernie-Ignatius.

Singing, which started as a hobby, has taken a front seat for this architect. She says, “I have not quit architecture altogether; I take up freelance projects now.”