Flashback Review: Shankar Mahadevan - Breathless
Shankar Mahadevan is part of the production trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is actually behind some of my favorite songs of the last 20+ years. Breathless was the title track for his 1998 album and stands as Shankar's most iconic single, and for good reason.
The whole point of Breathless is that it is continuously moving. I'll get to the main point in a minute, but first, a second to praise the excellent instrumental. Violins, flutes, tablas, it is a whole orchestra. It fades at times, but at other times comes extremely heavily. This variation keeps the listeners on their toes.
Now, the main point, Shankar himself. The song has no vocal breaks, and Shankar sings the whole thing without taking a break for even a quarter second, explaining why it is called Breathless. Thus, it is one of the hardest songs ever to sing. I embedded a live performance to just show how crazy hard it is. This difficulty is the song's main calling point, but Shankar never lets it be the only fact in the song. His voice is extremely on point and shows the romantic feelings described in the lyrics perfectly. I think there is even a minor key change near the end of the song.
The song is less than three minutes, but with such a hard-to-do performance, the fact it is longer than a minute is amazing. It has become a favorite for the extremely talented contestants in audition shows as it is so hard. The fact it has no vocal breaks is amazing in its own right, but Shankar's strong performance seals the deal.
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