Shilpa Rao (born 11 April 1984) is an Indian singer. Raised in Jamshedpur, she moved to Mumbai, at the age of 13 and completed Masters in Applied Statistics from St. Xaviers College, Mumbai, before working as jingle singer for three years. During her college days, Mithoon offered her to record the song Tose Naina from Anwar (2007), making her Bollywood career debut.
Rao rose to widespread prominence with the release of Khuda Jaane from Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). She was nominated for the Best Female Playback Singer award for the song, in 54th Filmfare Awards. The following year, she collaborated with Ilaiyaraaja for Paa (2009), where she performed the song Mudi Mudi Ittefaq Se for which she received another nomination in the same category during 55th Filmfare Awards ceremony. In 2012, Rao teamed up with A.R. Rahman and came up with the song Ishq Shava from Jab Tak Hai Jaan which was a commercial success, followed by Pritam-composed Malang from Dhoom 3 (2013) and Vishal-Shekars Meherbaan in Bang Bang! (2014). Raos collaborations with Amit Trivedi were particularly described delightful hearings with songs like Manmarziyan from Lootera (2013), being critically acclaimed.
While Rao was studying at college, she met with Mithoon, who called her for recording of the song Tose Naina from Anwar (2007). Considering the song as her most innocent rendition she had done, Rao said, This song is extremely close to my heart and has taught me what thrill and gratitude of music is and can be. Though Rao credits Tose Naina as her career debut song, the soundtrack of the film Ek Ajnabee (2005) has a semi-instrumental track titled Strange On The Prowl which has Raos alap incorporated within it.
She collaborated with Mithoon in two other projects during the year; Aggar and The Train. Though Sehra from the former met with negative reactions from music critics, both Woh Ajnabee and Teri Tamanna from the latter was well received; Raja Sen from Rediff.com praising Raos strong vocals in particular. While shooting for Salaam-e-Ishq, music composer Shankar Mahadevan from the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy suggested Raos name to director Nikhil Advani, landing up with the song Saiyaan Re. Sukanya Verma who praised Raos perfectly impish delivery of the song wrote: Despite Shankar Mahadevans dynamic presence, [Rao], to watch out for, is never once intimidated. She again teamed up with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the Hindi version of the track All For One from the soundtrack of High School Musical.
Raos first release of 2008 came with Raghav Sachar-composed remix version of Gup Chup from One Two Three, followed by Ek Lau from Aamir, composed by Amit Trivedi. According to Rao, Ek Lau was a song of hope for many people for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. She affirmed that the song will inspire people and picked Ek Lau as one of the few compositions that is close to her. Apart from rendering Main Sajda for Anu Malik in Good Luck!, she was heard in a faint alaap at the beginning of the song Koi Na Jaane from Hijack, along with KK. The duo, earlier worked during the year, in Vishal-Shekhars Khuda Jaane from Bachna Ae Haseeno. Rao, calling the song a timeless classic, felt it was beautifully composed and written. She mentioned that she feels fortunate to be a part of the song. It fetched her first nomination in Filmfare Awards for Best Female Playback Singer.
