Kattassery Joseph Yesudas ; born 10 January 1940) is an
Indian
classical musician and
playback singer.
Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 50,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning five decades. He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri. He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s. He is fondly called ''Gana Gandharvan'' ().
He has won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times, the most by any Indian singer, and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer more than thirty times by the Governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal. In 2002, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts.
Early life and background
K. J. Yesudas was born in
Fort Kochi,
Kingdom of Cochin, into a
Catholic family, to
Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known
Malayalam classical musician and stage
actor, was his first ''
guru''. Later he joined the
R.L.V. Music Academy in
Thrippunithura and underwent training. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from
Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.
Career
The first song recorded by Yesudas is ''Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham'' (music:
M B Sreenivasan) on 14th Nov 1961, which he usually sings in all the special occasions in front of the audience. Yesudas began his career in
playback singing in the Malayalam movie ''Kaalpadukal'' and
Kollywood movies in the early 1960s. He sang in
Tamil 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''. He has sung Hindi songs for many leading actors in Hindi cinema including
Amitabh Bachchan,
Amol Palekar and
Jeetendra. He has sung many evergreen Hindi film songs for popular music directors including
Ravindra Jain,
Bappi Lahiri,
Khayyam, Rajkamal and
Salil Chowdhury. Almost all of the Hindi movie songs that he sang are popular even today . He has received seven
National Film Awards for the best singer, which is a record no Indian singer has equalled. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four
South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio,
Chennai.
Yesudas has performed in many major cities around the world. In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at music concerts in various cities in the USSR and also sang a Russian song on Radio Kazakhstan. In 2001 he sang for album Ahimsa in Sanskrit, Latin and English and in a mix of styles including New Age and Carnatic. In his music concerts in the Middle East he sings Arabic songs in the Carnatic style. He frequently serves as a cultural ambassador for India through his performances abroad, promoting Indian music.
In 1970, he was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy and was the youngest person ever to occupy the post. In 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War, Yesudas traveled all around Kerala with his musical troupe to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund. He also became Senate member of International Parliament for Safety and Peace. On 14 November 1999, UNESCO presented Yesudas with an honorary award 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. In 2009 Yesudas began a cross-country musical campaign against terrorism in Thiruvananthapuram, with the motto 'Music For Peace'. Kavita Karkare, wife of Hemant Karkare, handed over the torch to Yesudas to mark the launch of the 'Shanthi Sangeetha Yatra'.
He is often preferred by music directors/producers to render the songs which require the power factor and extreme variations in ragas, mainly in the big-budget movies. The song "Aadiyusha Sandhya" from the movie ''Pazhassi Raja'' is an example of his voice clarity even at the age of 69. Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam, a mridangam musician, has accompanied him in many concerts.
Scholarship
Completed the ''Ganabooshanam'' course at R.L.V. Music Academy, Thripunithura, Cochin
Graduated from the Sree Swathithirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum
Trained under K. R. Kumaraswamy (former principal of the Music College, Kochi), Kunjuvelan Aasan (a disciple of Nadaswara Vidwan Rajaratnam Pillai), Augustine Joseph, Dekshinamoorthi Swamikal V. Dakshinamoorthy, Ramakutti Bagavathar, Sivaraman Nayar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar
Role models
Sree Narayana Guru’s great message, "One caste, One religion and One God for all humanity", influenced young Yesudas in his dealings with his fellow men. He had his own heroes among the musicians too.
Mohammed Rafi,
Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and
Balamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most.
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.
Notable facts
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 peers and newcomers a chance of winning. Despite his request, he was still awarded this award multiple times in the following years.
Playback singer Unni Menon, who was singing track songs for other prominent singers, got a break when Yesudas, after hearing the track songs Unni Menon had sung for the Malayalam film ''Kadathu'', asked the music director Shyam to record and release the songs as they were. Yesudas was of the opinion that the songs did not need to be rendered by him, as Unni Menon had already done it well and there was no need for improvement.
Harivarasanam, a devotional song composed by Sri Kambakkudi Kulathur Srinivasa Iyer, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses K. J. Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.
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) 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 five times for the best playback singer by the Government of Tamil Nadu
Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards four 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
Swathi Sangeetha Puraskaram in 2011, highest music award given by Government of Kerala
In films
Music festival
For the past 30 years Yesudas has been visiting
Kollur Mookambika temple,
Udupi,
Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of
Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple.
On January 10, 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with ‘Sangeetharchana’ (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika on Sunday. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja’s poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function.
All India Radio broadcasted the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala.
Music award
Swaralaya Yesudas award is a prestigious award for music artists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The award is instituted jointly by Swaralaya, an organization that promotes music and
Kairali Channel, based in
Trivandrum,
Kerala. Awards have been given annually since 2000. Yesudas presents the awards at a ''Gandharva Sandhya'' every January.
Music company
In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangani 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.
See also
List of K. J. Yesudas concerts
K. J. Yesudas discography
Swaralaya Yesudas Award
List of Carnatic singers
References
External links
K.J. Yesudas's web site
Article on Yesudas: For me music is God
Interview with Yesudas: "Religions and races should not be obstacles but challenges for us"
Category:1940 births
Category:Living people
Category:Bollywood playback singers
Category:Carnatic singers
Category:Hindustani singers
Category:Indian Roman Catholics
Category:Indian male singers
Category:Indian film singers
Category:Kannada playback singers
Category:Kerala State Film Award winners
Category:Kollywood playback singers
Category:Malayalam playback singers
Category:Malayali people
Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan
Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri
Category:People from Kerala
Category:People from Kochi
Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Category:Tamil playback singers
Category:Telugu playback singers
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