Name : K.J. Yesudas
Occupation : Playback Singer, Music Director
Born, age : 10, January, 1940,Kochi, Kerala
Genres : Playback Singing, Composing
Languages : Malayalam, Tamil,Hindi, English, Telugu, Kannada and most Indian Languages
Awards : Padma Shri(1975), Padma Bhushan(2002), 7 National Awards and more than 30 state awards.
Yesudas is a Indian Playback Singer and Classic Musician. He was born in Fort Kochi, Kerala. He recorded more than 50000 songs in many languages in India.
Yesudas is one of the best playback singers from India. He was awarded "Padma Shri" in 1975 and "Padma Bhushan" in 2002 for best male playback singer. He has won 7 times the "National Award" for best singer, and more than 30 state awards from State Government of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. He is a well known and successful Indian Singer.
He is also known as "Gana Gandharvan". His sweet voice and ability to sing made him famous in Indian Classical Music. He has sung in almost indian languages and some foreign languages including Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English.
Career
Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal [6] and Kollywood movies in the early 1960s. He sang for Bommai first (music: S. Balachander), but the first released movie was Konjum Kumari (music: Veda). By the 1970s he entered Bollywood . His first Hindi song was for the movie Jai Jawan Jai Kissan (1971), but the
first released movie was Chhoti Si Baat. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.
Personal life
Yesudas is married to Prabha for more than 30 years. They have three
sons, Vinod, Vijay and Vishal. The second son Vijay Yesudas is a budding musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007. The family is currently settled in Chennai and Trivandrum . He also owns estates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA and Flower Mound, TX , USA for personal and business reasons.
Awards and Honours:
Yesudas has recorded over 40,000 songs and has won scores of
accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002)[15] and seven National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan
(official singer) of Kerala State . National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer a record seven times by the Government of India Kerala State Film Awards a record 24 times for the best playback singer by the Government of Kerala Tamil Nadu State Film Awards eight times for the best playback singer by the Government of Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards six times for the best playback singer by the Government of Andra Pradesh Karnataka State Film Awards Five Times for the best playback singer by the Government of Karnataka West Bengal State Film Awards One time for the best playback singer
by the Government of West Bengal Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1992) D. Phil by Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu (1989) D. Litt by Kerala University, Kerala (2003) D. Litt by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala (2009) Swaralaya - Eenam Awards 2010 - Decade's Best Talent in Malayalam Music.
Music Company:
Music company In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangni Studio at Trivandrum. In
1992 the office and studio were moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu and the company was incorporated in the US in 1998. Tharangni Studio and Tharangni Records became a recording center in Kerala which, for the
first time, brought out audio cassettes of Malayalam film songs in stereo. The record company also had a voice mixing studio in Studio27,
Chennai. The studio continues to produce and present events of
Yesudas both for film and Indian classical music concerts throughout the world.
