KJ Yesudas
KJ Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, Kerala, India on January 10th, 1940 and is the World Music Singer. At the age of 84, KJ Yesudas biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian musician and playback singer.
Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional and cinematic songs.
He has recorded more than Eighty Thousand songs in a number of Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Odia as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, during a career spanning more than five decades.
Often called as Gaanagandharvan (The Celestial Singer), he is regarded as one of the greatest Indian singers of all time.
Yesudas has performed in most Indian languages except for Punjabi, Assamese, Konkani, and Kashmiri.
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 record eight times, 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.
He was awarded the Padma Shri 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.
In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award having recorded more than 80,000 songs in a five-decade career.
In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.
Early life
K. J. Yesudas was born in Kochi, in Kerala, in a Latin Catholic Christian family to Augustine Joseph and Elizabeth Joseph. His father, a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor. Yesudas was the second of seven children, preceded by an elder sister named Pushpa, and followed by four younger brothers - Antony (Antappan), Babu, Mani, Justin and a younger sister, Jayamma. Among these siblings, Pushpa and Babu died of fever at a young age, and Justin, the youngest brother, died under mysterious circumstances in February 2020, aged 62.
Augustine Joseph's dearest friend, Musician Kunjan Velu Bhagavathar was the first guru of him.Kunjan Velu was the disciple of Nadaswara Chakravarthi T N Raja Ratnam Pillai. Yesudas started his academic music training at R. L. V. Music Academy, Thrippunithura and completed the Ganabooshanam course. Later he studied at Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram under the tutelage of the carnatic music maestro K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer but could not complete his studies due to financial constraints. For a brief period, he also studied music under Vechoor Harihara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.
In 2021 Yesudas completed his 60 years as a playback singer.
Personal life
Yesudas is married to Prabha. Their marriage was on 1 February 1970. They have three sons, Vinod (b. 1977), Vijay (b. 1979) and Vishal (b. 1981). Their second son Vijay Yesudas is a musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007, 2012 and 2018.
Sree Narayana Guru's 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 and Balamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most. 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 in 2000. 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". In 2002, during Marad massacre, he visited the place along with the veteran poet Sugathakumari, and conducted classes against violence. Harivarasanam, a devotional song musical version composed by G. Devarajan, 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 Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.
Career
Yesudas released Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham, his first hit song (music: M. B. Swesham), on November 14, 1961. The singer regards those four lines he needed to sing to begin his film career as a major honor because they were written by none other than Sree Narayana Guru, Kerala's most revered saint-poet-social reformer. Kalpadukal (1962), based on social change during Sree Narayana Guru's life and times. He was associated with popular singers of the day like P. Leela, Santha P. Nair, K. P. Udayabhanu, S. Janaki, etc. P. Bhaskaran and Nambiyath are two lyricists, as well as P. Bhaskaran and Nambiyath. For this film, he performed poet Kumaran Asan's lines. M. B. S. Devarajan, G. Devarajan, V. Dakshinamoorthy, Br Lakshmanan, M. S. Baburaj, and many others followed him into the first years, becoming the most sought after by established music directors of the time. Thus began his career in playback singing, which included the Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada films.
With the hit Malayalam film Bharya (music by G. Devarajan and lyrics by Vayalar Ramavarma), he got his first major break. In 1967, he performed hit songs in M.S.Baburaj's composition for the film Udhyogastha directed by P.Venu. He performed in Tamil for Bommai first (music: S. Balachander), but Konjum Kumari was the first released film (music: Veda). He was invited by the Soviet Union government to appear at music concerts in various cities in the USSR in 1965, as well as singing a Russian song against Radio Kazakhstan. Salil, Yesudas, and Prem Nazir formed the Salil, Yesudas, and Prem Nazir trio, which was part of the 1970s Malayalam Cinema Company.
He was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy in 1970, becoming the youngest person to occupy the position.
Yesudas got a break in Bollywood in the early 1970s after a decade of acting in South Indian films. His first Hindi song was for the film Jai Jawan (1971), but Chhoti Si Baat, which resulted in him becoming famous for singing songs like "Jaaneman Jaaneman" in his first Hindi film. Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar, and Jeetendra have all performed in Hindi cinema, including Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar, and Jeetendra. Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayam, Rajkamal, and Salil Chowdhury have all performed many of the evergreen Hindi film songs for musicians, including Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayyam, Rajkamal, and Salil Chowdhury.
The Yesudas' most famous Hindi songs in the 1976 film Chitchor were accompanied by Ravindra Jain's music.
Yesudas was presented with an honorary award by UNESCO on "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" in Paris on November 14, 1999, a concert hosted in honor of the new millennium's beginning and whose attendees included musicians such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta.
He performed in Sanskrit, Latin and English, as well as a mixture of styles including new-age and Carnatic in 2001. He sings Arabic songs in the Middle East in his music recitals. He appears in India on a regular basis as a cultural ambassador for India, encouraging Indian music and promoting Indian music.
Yesudas began a cross-country musical fight against terrorism in Thiruvananthapuram in 2009, under the slogan 'Music For Peace'. Kavita Karkare, the wife of Hemant Karkare, gave the torch to Yesudas to mark the 'Shanthi Sangeetha Yatra's unveiling. In the 36-year-old Soorya Music festival, directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, Yesudas has appeared for 36 times.