MILI (singer-songwriter)

Early life

MILI was born in Mumbai and finished her schooling in Pune. Although born in Mumbai, she is a Malayali with her family roots in both Kerala and Malaysia. She pursued her college education at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, earning a bachelor's degree in Journalism, English Literature, and Psychology.^[1]

Mili's journey into music began at an early age. She completed her grade examinations in Western classical voice with Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and performed as a soprano soloist with professional choral groups across India.^{[citation needed]}

At just 16, she began performing live professionally with rock and jazz bands.^{[citation needed]}

Album: Written in the Stars

Mili released her first album in English Written in the Stars in which she has composed all ten songs on the album and has collaborated with veteran musicians Vinnie Colaiuta, Michael Landau, James Genus and George Whitty.^[2] The album was launched with the first video Dream Like A Skylark on YouTube. Written in the Stars was recorded and produced in Los Angeles, California and released under the label Apostrophe Music.^[3][4]

The music video for the song Fooling and New Day was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and Stockholm, Sweden and was broadcast on VH1.

Single: Keep The Hope Alive!

Mili released her first single in English "Keep The Hope Alive!” on 10 July 2020, which aims at keeping our spirits up, as the whole world is fighting against the pandemic.^{[citation needed]}

Single: Elephant

Written,composed and arranged by MILI, Elephant marks a notable milestone, with MILI becoming the first artist from India to have Joe Satriani perform on her composition, making it a significant moment for the Indian music landscape.

Elephant features Joe Satriani on Guitars, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, James Genus on Bass, Jeff Babko on keys and produced by Hamesh.

Playback Singing & Coke Studio (India)

A.R. Rahman gave MILI her first break in film music with the Tamil song Keda Kari in Raavanan and Maham Maye in the Telugu film Komaram Puli. Her most recent release with Rahman is Parakka Seivaai from the Tamil film Ambikapathy (Tamil version of Bollywood film Raanjhana).^{[citation needed]}

MILI went on to collaborate with composer Amit Trivedi on the Hindi film Kai Po Che!, lending her voice to the track Meethi Boliyaan. Meethi Boliyaan earned MILI award nominations from the Indian music industry.^{[citation needed]} She later joined Trivedi on his national concert tours.^{[citation needed]}

MILI also collaborated with director Mahesh Bhatt, performing the title song for the film Mr. X, composed by Jeet Gannguli.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, she worked with composer Harris Jayaraj, delivering the Tamil song Rettai Kathirein from the film Maattrraan.^{[citation needed]}

Her performances on the TV series Coke Studio@MTV Season 2 gained her further recognition.^{[citation needed]}

Albums

Singles

1. Keep The Hope Alive! (Acoustic): Date of release July 10th 2026.

2. Elephant: MILI, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Colaiuta & Jeff Babko: Date of release May 1st 2026.

Feature films

Coke Studio at MTV India