Legendary Carnatic music vocalist, playback singer and cultural icon of Kerala K.J. Yesudas turned 84 on Wednesday.
Known as ‘ganagandharvan’ (celestial singer) to millions of his admirers across the world, Mr. Yesudas was flooded with birthday wishes from many including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, actors, singers, composers and common people. Even social media were filled with wishes for ‘Dasettan,’ as he is fondly called by his fans, on his special day.
While newspapers brought out special pages with feature stories on Mr. Yesudas and picture albums of him as a mark of tribute, television channels aired special programmes and interviews featuring his fellow singers and music directors, who reminisced about their experiences with him.
In a Facebook post, Mr. Vijayan described Mr. Yesudas’ music and songs as pure magic. He said the eminent singer had played a remarkable role in bringing classical music, once confined to the streets of “agraharas’ (housing colonies of Brahmins) and the courts of scholars, to the common people. He has always made interventions for the creation of a secular society, the Chief Minister recalled.
Superstar Mohanlal and well-known playback singer K.S. Chitra put out video messages on their social media pages to wish the veteran on his birthday. On a Malayalam channel, eminent singer Shreya Ghoshal was seen recollecting her memories of sharing a stage with Mr. Yesudas and said she is his hardcore fan.
Sources close to Mr. Yesudas said he would not be able to offer prayers at the Kollur Mookambika temple in Karnataka as he is currently in the U.S. with his family members. It has been a practice of many years for the singer to visit the temple on his birthday and pay musical tribute. After the outbreak of COVID-19, his visits to India have become rare, the sources added.
Kochi event
Meanwhile, Mr. Yesudas participated virtually in a special event organised in Kochi in which several prominent personalities, including actors, directors and music composers, took part. The singer, who was spotted donning his trademark white kurta in the live video, thanked everyone for their birthday wishes. He said people remaining united regardless of caste and creed was for him “sweeter than a birthday cake”. During the function, his son and singer Vijay Yesudas cut the birthday cake on his father’s behalf.
Mr. Yesudas has recorded over 25,000 film songs, Carnatic music bhajans and other devotional songs. Besides Indian languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali and Odiya, he has also sung in Arabic, English, Latin and even Russian during an over-six-decade-long career.
He has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 2017 and is a recipient of eight national awards, 25 Kerala State awards, five State awards of Tamil Nadu and four of Andhra Pradesh.
Recognised as one of the greatest playback singers in the country, Mr. Yesudas began his music career in the tinsel town with the Malayalam song Jathi bhedam matha dwesham in 1961 and sang mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films, apart from songs in other languages as well.
Some of his well-known Hindi songs, which went on to become hits, include Jab Deep Jale Aana and Gori Tera.
