10th January 1940 Kattasary Joseph Yesudas Was Born Fort Kochi Indian Classical Devotional And Popular Music Singer

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K. J. Yesudas

Playback Singer
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian singer. Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. Wikipedia
Born: January 10, 1940 (age 75), Fort Kochi
Spouse: Prabha Yesudas (m. 1970)
Children: Vijay Yesudas, Vinod Yesudas,Vishal Yesudas
Awards: National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer, more
Albums: Sitaron Mein Tu Hi, Ponnil Kulicha Raathri, Yesudas: The Golden Collection, Mayilpeeli

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K. J. Yesudas

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K. J. Yesudas
K. J. Yesudas
Background information
Birth name	Kattassery Joseph Yesudas
Also known as	Gana Gandharvan, Dasettan
Born	10 January 1940 (age 75)^[1] Fort Kochi, Cochin, Indian Empire
Origin	Kochi, Kerala, India
Genres	Indian classical music,playback singing, Filmi ^[2]
Occupation(s)	Singer, composer
Years active	1961–present
Website	K.J. Yesudas Official site

K. J. Yesudas
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Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (Malayalam: കട്ടാശേരി ജോസഫ് യേശുദാസ്; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian singer.

Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 70,000 songs^{[not in citation given]} in many languages includingMalayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi,Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning five decades.^[3]^[4] He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri.^[5]^[6] He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s.^[2] Yesudas is fondly calledGana Gandharvan (The Celestial Singer).^[7]^[8]

Yesudas has won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times (the most by any Indian singer), 5 Filmfare Awards and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 43 times, which consists of awards by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1975 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts.^[9] In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award having recorded over 20,000 songs in a five-decade career.^[10]^[11] In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.^[12]

Early life and background[edit]

K. J. Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, into a Roman Catholic Latin Rite family to lateAugustine Joseph and late Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. He started his academic music training at R.L.V. Music Academy, Thrippunithura. Later he studied at Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram under the tutelage of the carnatic music maestro late Sh. K.R.Kumaraswamy Iyer and the late Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer but could not complete his studies due to financial constraints. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Harihara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. In 2011 he completed his 50 years as a playback singer.^[13]

Completed the Ganabooshanam course at R.L.V. Music Academy, Thripunithura, Cochin
Studied at Sree Swathithirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum under the tutelage of the carnatic music maestro late Sh. K.R.Kumaraswamy Iyer
Trained under K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer (former principal of the Music College, Kochi), Thripunithura Shri K.C Kalyanasundaram Master, Kunjuvelan Aasan (a disciple of Nadaswara Vidwan Rajaratnam Pillai), Augustine Joseph (his father), V. Dakshinamoorthy, Ramankutti Bagavathar, Sivaraman Nayar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.

Playback singing career[edit]

Debut and early career: 1960s[edit]

Yesudas with poet and lyricist O. N. V. Kurup

The first song sung by Yesudas is Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham (music: M B Sreenivasan) on 14 November 1961, which he usually sings on all the special occasions in front of the audience. Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal^[4] and Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies in the early 1960s.

He got the first break in his music career with the hit Malayalam film named Bharya ( music by G. Devarajan and lyrics by Vayalar Ramavarma). In 1967, he sang hit songs in the composition of M.S.Baburaj for the film Udhyogastha directed by P.Venu. He sang in Tamil for Bommai first (music: S. Balachander), but the first released movie was Konjum Kumari (music: Veda).

The trio of Salil, Yesudas and Prem Nazir (the evergreen hero of Malayalam Cinema) took the Malayalam Cinema Industry of the 1970s by storm. It was generally agreed that Yesudas's voice was the most suited one for Prem Nazir.^[14]

In 1970 he was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy and was the youngest person ever to occupy the post.^[15]

On 9 December 1971, Yesudas missed a flight which later crashed on the way to Madurai. A Hawker Siddeley HS 748 near Chinnamanur was descending into Madurai in reduced visibility. It flew into high terrain about 50 mi (80 km) from the airport, killing the four crew members and 17 passengers.^[16]^[17]^[18]

Bollywood entry: 1970s[edit]

By the 1970s Yesudas entered Bollywood. The first Hindi song he sang 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 includingAmitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar and Jeetendra. He has sung many evergreen Hindi film songs for music directors including Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayyam, Rajkamal and Salil Chowdhury.^[19]

Yesudas's most popular Hindi songs are in the 1976 movie Chitchor, with music given by Ravindra Jain. The greatest tribute to Yesudas was paid by Ravindra Jain, in an interview wherein the blind music director confessed that if ever he happened to regain vision, the first person he would like to see would be Yesudas.^[14]

Prominence over the world[edit]

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 over Radio Kazakhstan.^[15]^[20]Yesudas became one of the senate members in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace.^[21] On 14 November 1999, Yesudas was presented with 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.^[22]

In 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War, Yesudas travelled all around Kerala with his musical troupe to raise funds for the Indian prime minister's National Defense Fund.^[19]

In 2001 he sang for album Ahimsa in Sanskrit, Latin and English and in a mix of styles including new-age and Carnatic.^[23]In his music concerts in the Middle East he sings Arabic songs in the Carnatic style.^[24] He frequently serves as a cultural ambassador for India through his performances abroad, promoting Indian music.

In 2009 Yesudas began a cross-country musical campaign against terrorism in Thiruvananthapuram, with the motto 'Music For Peace'.^[25] Kavita Karkare, wife of Hemant Karkare, handed over the torch to Yesudas to mark the launch of the 'Shanthi Sangeetha Yatra'.^[26]

Personal life[edit]

Yesudas is married to Prabha. They have three sons, Vinod, Vijay and Vishal. Their second son Vijay Yesudas is a musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007 and 2013. The family is currently settled in Chennai and Trivandrum. He also owns estates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA and Flower Mound, Texas, USA for personal and business reasons.^[27]

Role models[edit]

A statue of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar sponsored by Yesudas at Chembai gramam (Kottayi village) in Palakkad; next to Bhagavatar's house.

Sree Narayana Guru’s great message, 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 andBalamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most.^[28]

Spiritualism[edit]

Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Kollur, 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 Sunday, 10 January 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with 'Sangeetharchana' (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja's poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function. All India Radio broadcast the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala. Yesudas also has many songs devoted to Lord Ayyappa including the hit song "Harivarasanam".^[29]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]

Music company[edit]

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.^[34]

Notable facts[edit]

Yesudas has the rare feat of performing the classical concert for 36 times in the 36-year old Soorya Music festival organised by Soorya Krishnamoorthy. This is one among his concerts which is highly followed by serious musical lovers and often rated as the most popular among his concerts in India.^[35]
After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so as to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning the award. Despite his request, he was still given this award several 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 musical version composed by G. Devarajan, recited before closing the temple atSabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.^[3]
Swaralaya Yesudas award is a prestigious award for music artists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The award is instituted jointly by Swaralaya, an organisation 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.^[36]^[37]^[38]

Awards and honours[edit]

Main article: List of titles, honours and major awards received by Yesudas

Yesudas has recorded over 50,000 songs^{[not in citation given]} and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975),^[39] Padma Bhushan (2002)^[40] 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 26 times for the best playback singer by the Government of Kerala
Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards four times for the best playback singer by the Government of Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka State Film Awards three times for the best playback singer by the Government of Karnataka
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards five times for the best playback singer by the Government of Tamil Nadu
West Bengal State Film Awards one time for the best playback singer by the Government of West Bengal
Sangeetha Kalasikhamani, 2002 by The Indian Fine arts Society, Chennai

Controversies[edit]

Controversial Remarks on Women and Jeans[edit]

On 2 October 2014, Yesudas sparked a row while speaking at a public function on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi. His statement, "Women shouldn't wear jeans and display themselves before people. What is meant to be covered should be covered. Wearing jeans and roaming around attracts unnecessary attention. We must respect cultural doctrines. Women's beauty is in their soberness, they should not become like men," evoked protests from Womens' Rights and Political organizations, for being sexist and derogatory to women. There has been an increasing pressure on him to withdraw the statement and apologize, which was marked by #yesudas trending on Twitter in India for infamous reasons.^[41]^[42]

Filmography[edit]

As actor[edit]

Year	Film	Stars	Director	Role
1965	Anarkali^[43]	Prem Nazir	Kunchacko	Tansen
1965	Kavyamela	Prem Nazir	M. Krishnan Nair	as himself
1966	Kayamkulam Kochunni	Sathyan	P. Bhaskaran	as merchant
1973	Achaani	Prem Nazir	P. Bhaskaran	as singer
1977	Nirakudam	Kamalhassan	A. Bhimsingh	as singer
1977	HarshaBashppam	M.G.Soman	K J Yeshu Das	as singer
1981	Pathira Sooryan	Prem Nazir	P K Pillai	as saint
2002	Nandanam	Prithviraj	Ranjith	as himself
2005	Boyy Friend	Manikuttan	Vinayan	as himself

Discography[edit]

Main article: K. J. Yesudas discography

References[edit]

Jump up^ "Profile of Malayalam Musician KJ Yesudas". Retrieved23 December 2013.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "Malayalam Songs Composer – KJ Yesudas". Malayalasangeetham.info. 24 April 2010. Retrieved2010-05-01.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "Music legend Yesudas turns 70". The Hindu(Chennai, India). 10 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January2011.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "'I don't sing trendy music'". Rediff. Retrieved2009-09-06.
Jump up^ "Those magical moments...". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 3 September 2002. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
Jump up^ "Life devoted to music". The Hindu. 1 February 2001. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
Jump up^ "Yesudas celebrated Birthday at Kollur". oneindia.
Jump up^ "Vijay Yesudas weds Darsana". sify.
Jump up^ "Padma Bhushan Awardees – Padma Awards – My India, My Pride". India.gov.in. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
Jump up^ http://www.indianoftheyear.com/media-announcementpr17.php. Missing or empty |title= (help)
Jump up^http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/yesudas-receives-cnn-ibn-indian-year-award. Missing or empty|title= (help)
Jump up^ "One for the records". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 1 December 2006. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ http://malayalasangeetham.info/displayProfile.php?artist=KJ%20Yesudas&category=singers
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "K.J. Jesudas". indiansingers.net.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "CDR K J YESUDAS THE INDIAN PLAYBACK SINGING LEGEND’S RAGS TO RICHES". stateofkerala.in.
Jump up^ http://www.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/malayalamContentView.do?contentId=12809155&tabId=4&BV_ID=@@@
Jump up^ http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/1971/Dec09/index.html
Jump up^http://www.hwh22.it/xit/S02_documenti/doc_aercrash.html#1971
^ Jump up to:^a ^b "Career Instinct of Playback singer Yesudas". chennaispider.com.
Jump up^ "K.J. Yesudas". indiansingers.net.
Jump up^ "International relations and personal associations". wikipedia.
Jump up^ "KJ Yesudas completes 50 glorious years as singer". Asianet india.
Jump up^ "Ahimsa Album". Hinduonnet.com. 19 February 2001. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
Jump up^ Vineet Pillai (15 November 2003). "Exclusive – Interview with Yesudas on 15th November 2003". Indien-netzwerk.de. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ "Yesudas' Musical Campaign for peace". oneindia.com. 13 January 2009.
Jump up^ "Tributes paid to Hemant Karkare". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ Ajay Gosh. "Dr. KJ Yesudas: Singer With A Golden Voice".
Jump up^ "'I do not sing trendy music': Yesudas". Rediff.com. 7 May 2001. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^http://entertainment.oneindia.in/malayalam/news/2014/notable-facts-singer-kj-yesudas-on-74-th-happy-birthday-129334.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)^{[dead link]}
Jump up^ "Gandharva of songs : K.J Yesudas celebrates 70th birthday". Non Resident Kerala Associations. Retrieved2010-05-01.^{[dead link]}
Jump up^ "Yesudas celebrated Birthday at Kollur". Oneindia Entertainment. 19 January 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ PTI (10 January 2012). "Music legend Yesudas turns 72". Chennai, India: The Hindu. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ "Yesudas celebrates 70th birthday in Kollur". The New Indian Express. 11 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
Jump up^ "Dr. K. J. Yesudas". keralatourism.org. Retrieved18 March 2010.
Jump up^ "Gaanagandharvan graces the Soorya festival for the 36th time". http://thiraseela.com.
Jump up^ "Swaralaya awards presented". The Hindu. 20 January 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
Jump up^ "Swaralaya award for Shankar Mahadevan". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 16 December 2007. Retrieved 18 March2010.
Jump up^ "Tributes paid to Hemant Karkare". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
Jump up^ "Padma Shri Awardees". Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved 2014-11-27.
Jump up^ "Padma Bhushan Awardees". Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved 2014-11-27.
Jump up^ "Women Shouldn't Wear Jeans, Says Legendary Singer Yesudas". NDTV.
Jump up^ "KJ Yesudas: India singer criticised for 'sexist' jeans remark". BBC.
Jump up^ B. Vijayakumar (31 May 2010). "Anarkali (1966)". The Hindu. Retrieved 2011-11-08.

http://www.kannadatimes.com/?s=yesudas

External links[edit]

Official website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to K. J. Yesudas.

http://dasettan.com Created by one of his fan.
K. J. Yesudas at the Internet Movie Database
"Article on Yesudas: ‘For me music is God’". The Tribune. 15 October 2005.

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K. J. Yesudas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._J._Yesudas
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (Malayalam: കട്ടാശേരി ജോസഫ് യേശുദാസ്; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian singer. Yesudas sings Indian classical, ...
‎KJ Yesudas discography - ‎Vijay Yesudas - ‎Best Male Playback Singer - ‎Chembai

In the news

Music concert at temple to mark birthday of Yesudas

The Hindu‎ - 2 days ago

A day-long music concert will be held on Saturday at Sri Kollur Mookambika Temple to mark the 75th birthday of singer K.J. Yesudas.

Yesudas celebrates 75th birthday at Mookambika temple , Malayalam - Mathrubhumi English Movies

Mathrubhumi‎ - 2 hours ago

The singer for all times

Madhyamam‎ - 5 hours ago

More news for yesudas

Yesudas strikes a sour note with comments on women's attire

www.thehindu.com › News › National

Oct 4, 2014 - What should be covered must be covered. Women should not trouble others by wearing jeans,” K.J. Yesudas, musician, said here on Friday, ...