P Jayachandran

P. Jayachandran is an Indian playback singer. He has won national and state awards for the best playback singer. He has recorded songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages. Jayachandran is also affectionately called the Bhava Gayakan.

Jayachandran was born in 'Bhadralayam', Ravipuram, Ernakulam, and later his family moved to Irinjalakkuda. He began to learn the essence of Mridangam at a young age. He began to sing devotional songs in churches at the age of 8. The famous Malayalam film comedy actor, Innocent Vincent, was his classmate during his school days.  Jayachandran met Yesudas in 1958 when he participated in the state youth festival. Yesudas won the Best Classical Singer award and Jayachandran got the best Light Music Singer as well as best Mridamgist award in the same year.

Jayachandran got his first state award in 1972 for the song "Suprabhatham..." for the film "Panitheeratha Veedu". Its music was done by Sree M.S. Viswanathan. The year 1978 brought him another state award. The song was" Ragam Sreeragam" for the film "Bandhanam" and the music director was M.B.Sreenivasan. He received a prestigious national award in 1985 for "Sivasankara Sarva Saranya Vibho...", a Gurusthuthi song for the film "Sree Narayana Guru". The song "Prayam Nammil..." from the film Niram " brought him a third state award in 1998.

He got the first Asianet award and the Arabian award for the same song in the same year. Its music was done by Sree Vidyasagar. In 1994, he received the Tamil Nadu state Government award for the best singer for the song , "Kathazham Kattuvazhi..." for the film "KizhakkuCheemayile". A.R. Rahman composed the music. As a recognition for his contribution to Tamil film music, he was honoured with the "Kalaimamani" award of the Tamil Nadu Government.

Jayachandran was honoured with the Swaralaya Kairali Yesudas award at the beginning of 2001, which he was the first person to receive.