KASARGOD: Playback singer K J Yesudas celebrated his 75th birthday by offering a ‘Sangeetharchana’ at the Mookambika Devi Temple, Kollur, Udupi district in Karnataka, on Saturday.
The music legend performed Carnatic recital at the shrine as he used do on his birthdays. He was joined by his wife Prabha, sons Vinod and Vijay Yesudas, friend and poet R K Damodaran and disciples; hundreds of fans from Kerala also arrived at the temple knowing that he would be there on his birthday.
He sang four kirtanas, and on public demand, gave a small talk on the importance of communal harmony. Later in the evening, he offered ‘deeparadhana’ at the temple. The birthday lunch was hosted by temple priest Govindan Adiga.
During the day, Yesudas honoured Prof P R Kumara Kerala Varma with the first Mookambika Sangeetha Aradhana Samiti Award on the temple premises. The Samiti was formed on the 60th birthday of Yesudas at the temple. The award carries a citation and a purse of `10,000.
A devotee, who was at the temple, said there was a long queue of fans giving gifts and ceremonial shawls to the legendary singer.
Yesudas was born to stage actor-singer Augustin Joseph and Elizabeth on January 10, 1940, at Fort Kochi in Kerala. He took his early lessons in music from his father. After completing schooling in his home town, he took music as his main subject, joining RLV Music College and later the Government Music College in Thiruvananthapuram from where he graduated.
In a career spanning more than five decades, the singer has delighted music fans with thousands of film songs. He has rendered compositions in English, Russian, Arabic and Latin, apart from most of the Indian languages.