KJ Yesudas, the legendary Malayalam singer, completes five decades in his playback singing career this year. His songs will always linger in the hearts of Malayalis for its sheer brilliance. He has sung about 30,000 songs in around 15 languages including Russian, Arabic, Latin and English.
From late 1930s to early 60s, Malayalam playback singing belonged to Gokulapalan, Sreenivasan, Mehaboob, A M Raja, Kamukara Purushothaman and Haji Abdul Khader. During the 60s Yesudas came as a wisp of fresh air and became the singing sensation of the era with his mellifluous voice.
K J Yesudas was born to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty in Fort Kochi on January 10, 1940. His first music lessons were given by his father, a well known Malayalam classical musician and a stage actor. Later on, for further studies he joined R L V Music Academy, Tripunithura where he developed his vocal skills. After his brief training with Sri Vechur Hara Hara Subramania Iyer he had the opportunity to learn under carnatic music maestro, Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavatar. Although Yesudas’s basics lie in Carnatic music, he has managed to master Hindustani as well.
Yesudas began his career in playback singing with the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal in the early 60s. Some of his masterpieces are Padatha veenayum paadum, Sanyasini, Chandra kalabham, Akkareyanente thamasam, Chutta muthal chudalavare, Pranasakhi njan, Eesvaran orikkal virunninupoyi, Kanakasimhasanatthil and Thamasamenthe.
Government of India has honored him for his contributions to Indian music by awarding Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2002. On November 14, 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. He is the only singer who has been given the title ‘Asthana Gayakan’ (Official singer) of Kerala State.
He has been awarded the national award for best playback singing male for seven times for Achanum Bappayum (1974), Gayathri (1977), Chit Chor (Hindi, 1983), Megha Sandhesham, Unnikale Oru Kadha Parayam (1988) Bharatham (1992), and Swapnam (1994). He has garnered the Kerala government’s award for best playback singing male 23 times for his songs in the movies such as Aaram Thampuran, Deshadanam, Thoovalkkottaaram, Parinayam and Nakhashathangal. He has started singing when Malayalam cinema was still in its infancy. However, even after fifty long years in the industry his voice still has the same quality and finesse that even newgen heroes want Yesudas to sing their songs. Hence, he is known as the evergreen singer of Malayalam cinema.