Susheela Raman (born in Hendon, London, UK in 1973) is an acclaimed British-Tamil singer-songwriter, composer and musician. Raman has released four albums since 2001. Her debut album Salt Rain was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001.[1] Susheela Raman's parents are from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu who arrived in London, UK in the mid-sixties. At the age of four, Raman and her family left the UK for Australia.[2] Susheela grew up singing South Indian classical music and began giving recitals at an early age. [1] She recalls how her family "were eager to keep our Tamil culture alive."[1] As a teenager in Sydney she started her own band, describing its sound as ?funk and rock and roll?,[3][4] before branching out into more blues and jazz-based music, which demanded quite different voice techniques. She tried to bring these streams together when in 1995 she travelled to India to rediscover her roots by way of further exploring Carnatic music.