Usha Iyer Uthup is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer during the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Her parents used to listen to a wide range from Western classical to Hindustani and Carnatic including Kishori Amonkar and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan on radio and she used to join them.

His daughter, Jamila, influenced Usha to learn Hindi and take up Indian classical music.

Her sisters, who were already exploring a career in music, introduced her to Ameen Sayani, then the most popular radio announcer in India.

Ameen Sayani gave her an opportunity to sing in the Ovaltine Music Hour of Radio Ceylon.

Usha Uthup started her music career in Chennai in 1969, singing in a small nightclub called Nine Gems in the basement of the erstwhile Safire Theatre complex on Mount Road,[12][13] wearing a saree and leg calipers.

[citation needed] Her performance was so well received that the owner of the nightclub asked her to stay on for a week.

By happenstance, a film crew belonging to Navketan unit and Dev Anand visited the nightclub and they offered her a chance to sing movie playback.

However, as a result of internal politicking on the part of other singers, she lost that chance but ended up singing an English verse.

[citation needed] In 1968, she recorded covers of two pop songs in English, "Jambalaya" and The Kingston Trio's "Greenback Dollar", on an EP, Love Story, and "Scotch and Soda", another Kingston Trio song, which sold very well in the Indian market.

With each rhyme set to an Indian raga, and sung in her characteristic voice with a feisty tempo, Usha creates the atmosphere for children and, surprisingly, even adults to sing along and dance to the toe-tapping beats.

Usha's Hindi version of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough", titled "Chhupke Kaon Aya", can be found on the album Tom Middleton – The Trip (2004).

She recorded a song called "Rhythm and Blues" with the Indian rock band Parikrama which appeared on Channel V on 23 April 2007.

Uthup received a lot of recognition for having a unique voice that ranges between contralto and alto.

In 2019, she appeared in the documentary If Not for You[citation needed] for which, she recorded a cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" by legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.