Live performances

Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live, which may be due to the time he devotes to his composing activities. His last major live performance, the first in 25 years, was a four-hour concert held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, India on 16 October 2005. The show was widely televised both in India and abroad, in which he played a song with just three notes (sa re ga). Less well-known was his live 2004 performance in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival Internazionale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival. He had done a few small-scale shows early in his career in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and was involved in a charity concert to raise funds for the construction of a Hindu temple in India.

A television retrospective titled Ithu Ilaiyaraja ('This is Ilaiyaraja') was produced, chronicling his career. He last performed live at the audio release function of Dhoni film and before that he performed a programme that was conducted and telecasted by Jaya TV titled Enrendrum Raja ('Everlasting Raja') on 28 December 2011 at Jahawarlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai. On 23rd September 2012, he performed live in Bangalore at National High School Grounds. On February 16, 2013, Ilayaraja made his first appearance in North America performing at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto concert was promoted by Trinity Events for Vijay TV in India and produced by Sandy Audio Visual SAV Productions with PA+. Following his show at Toronto Ilaiyaraaja also performed at the Prudential Center Newark, New Jersey on February 23, 2013 and at the HP Pavilion at San Jose on March 01, 2013. After his Northern America tour he made a live performance at the O2 Arena in London on August 24, 2013, along with Kamal Hassan and his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja.