K. J. Yesudas

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (/jeːʃud̪aːs/; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music and is the most famous cultural and entertainment industry icon of Kerala from the modern era. In a career spanning six decades, Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian. He is referred to by the epithet Gaanagandharvan (transl. The Celestial Singer) in reverence for his sweet, ethereal voice. Yesudas holds the world record for singing and recording 16 new songs in different languages in a single day. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s. Yesudas won the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer a record eight times, the Filmfare Awards South five times, and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 36 times, including awards given by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan (second-highest civilian award) in 2017 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts. In 2005, he was honoured with the J. C. Daniel Award, the Kerala government's highest honour for contributions to Malayalam cinema. In 2011, Yesudas received with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award for his contributions in the music field. In 2006, he recorded16 film songs in four South Indian languages in a single day at AVM Studio, Chennai.