Vaishnavism (Sanskrit: वैष्णव धर्म, IPA: [ʋəiˈʂɳəʋə ˈd̪ʱərmə]) is one of the major branches of Vedism along with Shaivism, Smartism, and Shaktism. It is focused on the veneration of Vishnu. Vaishnavites, or the followers of the Supreme Lord Vishnu, lead a way of life promoting differentiated monotheism, which gives importance to Lord Vishnu and His ten incarnations.

The oldest religious text in Vedic, Rigveda, describes Lord Vishnu as the Supreme Deity in Vishnu Sooktham (1.22.20):

Rigveda mentions the Supreme Lord 93 times. Other shlokas are devoted to his faithful servants, mentioned in the scriptures as the limbs of Lord Vishnu. These minor deities include Indra, Surya, Rudra, Maruta, Vayu, Agni and Manyu.

In general, the Vaishnava Agamas describe Lord Vishnu as the "supreme being and the foundation of all existence." This is explained in Katha Upanishad 2.2.13: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam/ eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman, "the Supreme Being, the Personality of Godhead, is the chief living being amongst all living beings and grants the desires of all other eternal sentient beings"

Lata Mangeshkar (born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Hindi. She is the elder sister of singer Asha Bhosle, Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. The claim was that she had recorded approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974. Over the years, while several sources have supported this claim, others have raised concerns over its veracity, claiming that this number was highly exaggerated and that Mangeshkar's younger sister, Asha Bhosle, had more song recordings than she had. In 2011 Guinness officially acknowledged Bhosle as the most recorded artist in music history.

Aruna Sairam (also spelt Sayeeram, Tamil: அருணா சாய்ராம்) is an eminent Carnatic music vocalist.

Aruna Sairam received vocal training from her mother Rajalakshmi Sethuraman, who was a disciple of the Alathur Brothers and Thanjavoor Sankara Iyer. She later received training from prominent vocalists, Madurai Somasundaram and T. Brinda. She also learnt the art of pallavi singing from T. R. Subramaniam,

Aruna Sairam collaborated with many Indian artists apart from internationally acclaimed artistes, like Dominique Vellard, the French Gregorian singer.

Aruna Sairam has presented her concerts in all major sabhas in India, as well as many destinations across the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Le Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and the Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco.

Alka Yagnik (born March 20, 1966 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India) is an Indian singer. Among the best-known playback singers of Hindi cinema, she is a record seven-time winner of the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer from a record of 35 nominations, a two-time recipient of the National Film Award as well as several other music awards listed below. Further, as many as 20 of her tracks feature in BBC's "Top 40 Bollywood Soundtracks of all time" review.

Alka Yagnik was born in Kolkata on March 20, 1966. Her mother Shubha Yagnik was a singer of Indian classical music. She received her school education from Modern High School for Girls. At the age of 6, she started singing for Akashvani (All India Radio), Calcutta. At age 10, her mother brought her to Bombay as a child singer. She was advised to wait until her voice matured, but her mother remained determined. On a subsequent visit, Alka got a letter of introduction to Raj Kapoor from his Kolkata distributor. Kapoor heard the girl and sent her with a letter to noted music director Laxmikant. Impressed, Laxmikant gave her two alternatives — an immediate start as a dubbing artist or a later break as a singer; they settled for the latter.

Shankar Mahadevan (Tamil: ஷங்கர் மகாதேவன்) is an Indian music composer and singer. He is a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio team that composes for Indian films and a playback singer.

Shankar Mahadevan was born and brought up in Chembur, a suburb of Mumbai, to a Tamil Iyer family from Palakkad, Kerala. He learned Hindustani classical music and Carnatic music in his childhood and started playing the veena at the age of five. He studied under Srinivas Khale, a well known Marathi music composer. He went to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School in Chembur. He subsequently attended SIES College in Sion and completed his HSC. He graduated in 1988 with a degree in Computer Science Engineering from Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology in Navi Mumbai under the auspices of Mumbai University. He worked as a software engineer on Oracle Version Six.

After working for a while for Leading Edge Systems, Shankar ventured into the field of music. He earned his first award as a playback singer in a Tamil movie, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain Kandukondain. A prominent star in the Kodambakkam film industry, he gained further recognition upon the release of his first music album, Breathless, in 1998. The title track of the album had been prepared in such a manner that it is sung without any break, so it appears to be sung in one breath and thus the title "breathless". He later got into music direction and became a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio, composing music for Hindi films.