Shobha Raju Biography 
Shobha Raju is a musician who is better known as the exponent of sankirtana of the gospel of Annamacharya. Her devotional songs are quite popular and she is also known as a singer and composer. She was the first recipient of TTD’s scholarship in 1976 which helped her to study exclusively Annamacharya’s compositions. For her overall contributions to Indian art and music, she was honoured with Padma shri in 2010. She founded “Annamacharya Bhavana Vahini” (ABV) in 1983, which has already trained more than 15,000 professional singers. She also trains students in Yoga, Meditation, Naturopathy and Philosophy, as a part of music studies.
She was born in 1957 in Vayalpadu, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. Her father was a retired Deputy Collector. She was drawn towards music since a very small child and started composing songs at the age of 4. She cut her first music record at the age of 16 and participated in many national level competitions by the age of 17, which gave her many prizes. She took formal training in music from Nedunuri Krishna Murthy and Rajyalakshmi, her mother. In fact, she took first lessons of music from her mother. She also trained spirituality from R. G. Narayana Raju. She studied at Padmavathi Women's College, Tirupati.
Through the TTD’s scholarship in 1976, she learnt Annamacharya’s compositions in details and in 1978 she was chosen as the first artist to propagate his compositions. “Venkateswara Geeta Malika” was her first released album consisting of saint Annamacharya’s compositions which gained huge popularity among Telugu speaking communities. As a part of her research works, she later found and published 39 compositions of Annamayya in the 1980s.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 27, 2014
