K. J. Yesudas

In this Indian name, the name Kattassery Joseph is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Yesudas.
"KJY" and "kjy" redirect here. For the language of Papua New Guinea, see Kewa language.
K. J. Yesudas
Yesudas in June 2011
Born
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas

(1940-01-10) 10 January 1940 (age 84)
Fort Kochi, Kingdom of Cochin, British India
(present-day Kerala, India)
Other namesDasettan, Ganagandharvan
Alma materSwathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram
Occupations
Years active1961–present
Spouse
Prabha
​
(m. 1970)​
Children3, including Vijay Yesudas
AwardsFull list
Honours
Musical career
Genres
InstrumentVocals
Labels
Signature

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (/jeːʃud̪aːs/; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs.[1] He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian music[2][3] and a cultural icon of Kerala.[4][5] Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs[6] in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Tulu, Hindi, Odia,[7] Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades.[8][9] He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan (transl. The Celestial Singer).[10][11] Yesudas holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day.[12] He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.

Yesudas won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer eight times (the highest of any person), [13] the Filmfare Awards South five times, and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer forty-three times, including awards given by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal.[2] He was awarded the Padma Shri[14] 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.[15] In 2005, he was honoured with the J. C. Daniel Award, Kerala government's highest honour for contributions to Malayalam cinema. In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award for his contributions in the music field. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.[16]

  1. ^ Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (10 July 2014). Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Routledge. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-135-94318-9.
  2. ^ a b "Music legend Yesudas turns 70". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 10 January 2010. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  3. ^ "'I don't sing trendy music'". Rediff. Archived from the original on 25 February 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  4. ^ "An icon's music and musings". Deccan Herald. 12 May 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  5. ^ Sivapriyan, ETB (25 September 2020). "S P Balasubrahmanyam and wife performed 'padha pooja' on Yesudas". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020.
  6. ^ "Yesudas receives CNN-IBN 'Indian of the Year' award". 17 December 2011. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  7. ^ "K.J Yesudas all odia songs".
  8. ^ Kurian, Sangeeth (3 September 2002). "Those magical moments..." The Hindu. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  9. ^ Padmanabhan, Savitha (8 February 2001). "Life devoted to music". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ^ Wangchuk, Rinchen Norbu (10 January 2020). "Here is Why KJ Yesudas is Known as 'Celestial Singer'". The Better India. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Legendary singer K.J. Yesudas turns 84". The Hindu. 10 January 2024. Archived from the original on 10 January 2024. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  12. ^ നായർ, അനീഷ് (10 January 2020). "അര നൂറ്റാണ്ടിനിടെ ഗാനഗന്ധർവൻ എത്ര പാട്ടുകൾ പാടിയിട്ടുണ്ടാവും?". Malayala Manorama. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  13. ^ Kumar, P. K. Ajith (14 April 2018). "A record most melodious for this singing legend". The Hindu.
  14. ^ "Padma Vibhushan is another stepping stone for K J Yesudas". The Times of India. 26 January 2017. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  15. ^ "Padma Bhushan Awardees – Padma Awards – My India, My Pride". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  16. ^ "One for the records". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 1 December 2006. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2010.