Fans flock to Chennai as Ilaiyaraaja concert celebrates composer’s ‘multitudes’

Chennai: Tens of thousands of Tamil music fans filled the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Sunday for a concert celebrating ‘Isaignani’ Ilaiyaraaja, with many arriving with one question: “Which Ilaiyaraaja would we get to experience today?”

The event marked 50 years of the composer’s influence on Tamil music. For decades, listeners have turned to different sides of his work. There is an Ilaiyaraaja for the ache of missing a mother’s embrace, one to pacify a broken heart, another that evokes the smell of petrichor, and one for late-night ruminations. His songs also soundtrack the breeze through bus and train windows, and for some, his music has been a hand extended in their darkest moments.

The Sunday morning crowd reflected that range. Fans across generations gathered, echoing Walt Whitman’s line, “I contain multitudes,” to describe the composer’s body of work. While there is only one Ilaiyaraaja, often called the ‘King of music,’ the concert underscored how his catalog holds different meanings for different listeners. The stadium responded in kind, with applause and singalongs shifting in mood as the setlist moved through love, longing, nostalgia, and solace.