Born in Delhi to Hindu Malayali parents C. S.

Nair and Kunnath Kanakavalli,[4]

Krishnakumar Kunnath was brought up in New Delhi.[5] KK sang 3,500 jingles before
breaking into Bollywood.[6] He is an alumnus of Delhi's Mount St Mary's School[6]
and graduated from Kirori Mal College,[7] Delhi University. He sang in the "Josh of
India" song for the support of Indian Cricket Team during Cricket World Cup of
1999.[8] This song featured members of the Indian Cricket Team

KK married his childhood sweetheart Jyothy in 1991.[9] His son Nakul Krishna
Kunnath sang a song "Masti" from his latest album Humsafar with him.[10] KK also
has a daughter named Tamara Kunnath who, according to KK, loves playing piano. KK
says that his family is his source of energy.

Vocals and musical style

KK has been greatly influenced by the singer Kishore Kumar and music director R. D.
Burman.[citation needed] Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Bryan Adams are also
favourite international singers of KK.[citation needed] KK has said that it is not
important for a singer's face to be prominently seen � saying he believes the
important thing is that "a singer must be heard."[11] KK has never undergone any
formal training in music.[citation needed]

Career
After graduating from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University in commerce, KK had a
brief stint of eight months as marketing executive in the hotel industry. After few
years, in 1994, he moved to Mumbai.[9]

Playback singing

Performing Live at The JockeyClub Auditorium, Hong Kong

In 1994, he gave his demo tape to Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot and Lesle Lewis to get
a break in the music arena. He was called by UTV and he sang a jingle for Santogen
Suiting ad.[10] In a span of four years, he has sung more than 3,500 jingles in 11
Indian languages. He got the first break in Mumbai from UTV to sing jingles. He
considers Lesle Lewis as his mentor for giving him his first jingle to sing in
Mumbai.[9] KK was introduced as a playback singer with A. R. Rahman's hit song
"Kalluri Saaley" and "Hello Dr." from Kadir's Kadhal Desam and then "Strawberry
Kannae" from AVM Productions's musical film Minsara Kanavu (1997).[12] Pritam
Chakraborty is also a fan of him.[citation needed] He got his Bollywood break
"Tadap Tadap" from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999).[12] However, prior to this song
he had sung a small portion of the song "Chhod Aaye Hum" from Gulzar's Maachis.
Till now, KK has sung more than 500 songs in Hindi and more than 200 songs in
Telugu, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages.[13] He has worked with
almost every music director of Hindi film industry active from 1999. He has lent
his voice to the biggest hit song of the year 2014 "Tune Maari Entriyaan" among
several others in Gunday. KK's new song from the movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan called "Tu
Jo Mila" has become popular, many times remained No.1 on iTunes.[citation needed]
Guinness World Record holder Kumar Sanu who reigned as the top playback singer
during the 1990s, has mentioned in several interviews that from the new generation
of singers he admires KK. Popular singer Arijit Singh said he has been inspired by
KK in singing, and is a big fan of KK.[citation needed] Another popular Bollywood
singer, Ankit Tiwari also said he has been greatly influenced by KK and he takes KK
as his idol and inspiration.[14]