Biography of Living Musical Legend Padmabhooshan Dr. K.J. YESUDAS
K.J. Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, Kerala to Augustine Joseph and Elizabeth Joseph. His father, who was his first guru (teacher), was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor of his time. He joined the Music Academy in Thrippunithura and won a gold medal for music at a local competition in Fort Kochi at age seven. He was trained by Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar who was one of the senior most performers of the time in Classical Music, and this training, abruptly cut short by the guru's demise in 1974, still stood him in good stead. He was scoffed at for being a Christian learning Carnatic music. Although a Carnatic expert he also learned Hindustani Music. His voice lends itself well to both Indian classical, devotional, and popular songs. He has recorded songs for many languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Russian, Arabic, Latin, and English through his long career. In his haydays, he was known as the Jim Reeves of South India. Fans term his voice as nothing short of "divine".
Yesudas started playback singing in Kollywood film industry in early 60's and in middle of 70's he entered in Bollywood. He had sung in almost all Indian language films except Assamese and Kashmiri. He had bagged seven times National Film Award for the best singer in Indian film industry. In 2006 he has sung 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.
Yesudas has performed in almost all the major cities of the world. In his music concerts at Middle East he performs Arabic songs in Carnatic style. And dons the role of cultural ambassador of India through his numerable performances abroad, promoting Indian Music. He is the only one singer who has the title Asthana Gayakan (Official singer) of Kerala State. He was awarded the Padma Sri (1973) and Padma Bhushan (2002) by the President of India. Yesudas won Kerala film award for twenty times, Tamil Nadu film Awards for eight times, Karnataka Film Awards for five times, Andhra Prasesh Film Award for three times West Bengal Film Awards for one time. The Madhya Pradesh Government gave him the prestigious Lata Mngeshkar Award in 1992.
In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at music concerts in various cities in the USSR and had sung a Russian song over Radio Kazakhstan. In 1970 he was nominated to head the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Kerala, he was the youngest person ever to occupy the office. In 1971, Yesudas with his musical troupe travelled around Kerala to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund during the Indo-Pakistani War. He also became Senate member in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace.[citation needed] He has taken Narayana Guru's message to heart, "One Religion, One Caste for all humans". On November 14, 1999, Yesudas was presented an honorary award by UNESCO for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris, a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium and whose attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta.
Yesudas and his wife Prabha have three sons Vinod, Vijay, and Vishal.
DR. K J YESUDAS “Gana Gandharvan”... the singing maestro....he is just perfect for any kind of songs.....there has been thousands of singers and millions of songs but nothing can match his voice and his songs.....his voice is adaptable for any kind of songs......Oscar winning music director A.R. RAHMAN said "the most beautiful voice in the world is that of Yesudas”.........
He has won the National Award for the best male playback singer seven times, the most by any singer and the State Award for the best playback singer more than thirty times by the Government of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Yesudas sings Indian classical music, devotional and popular songs. He has recorded more than 55,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya,Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English....Yesudas after winning The Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so that to give his peer’s and newcomer's a chance of winning. But despite his request, he was still awarded
this Every song sung by him is a hit..... Some of his memorable film songs are ‘ Gori tera Gaon Bada Pyara (Hindi), ‘ Manushyan Mathangale’, ‘Rama Kadha Gaana Layam’, Padmatheerthame Unaru’ (all Malayalam) and ‘Aakasa Desana Unnikale’ (Telugu).
Who can forget his sublime rendering of Nadhabrahmathin from the movie Kattu Kurangu, music directed by Dkashinamoorthy. The ease with which he sings this remarkable song is astounding
The song Kattile Pazhmulam is another one also by Dakshinamoorthy.
Exhilarating song Eazhu swarangalum from the film Chiriyo Chiri, Music scored by Raveendran the song sangeethame amara sallapame also by raveendran.
The national award song Ramakatha from the film Bharatham scored by raveendran.
One of the best semi classical melodies to hit the Malayalam film charts, Pramadavanam from the film His Highness Abdullah, music by Raveendran.
The be all of Malayalam film song, a song which any aspiring singer in Malayalam tends to sing without any success, harimuraliravam from aram thampuran, music raveendran
Etho nidrathan from the film Ayal Kadhyezhuthunnu , Music raveendran
Vaalkannezhuthiya, a sweet melody from the film Paithrikum and last but not the least, Gangae from the yet to be released film vadakumnathan, where he shows without a doubt that age has not diminished his singing prowess in any way, a classical combination of raveendran and yesudas once again, and the last music score done by raveendran prior to his demise.
There are many forms of music. People are crazy about western songs. Pop rock jazz but nothing can compete with his voice. He sings every language songs better than singers of that particular language. His diction is perfect. His voice is magical just love every song of his voice have soul he is GOD's another gift no one can replace him....he will never die because he live for century’s through his songs. Proud to be living in a world where DR K J YESUDAS is living...
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