8/9/2019 M s subbu

1/2

M.S. Subbulakshmi

M. S. Subbulakshmi, Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi, was one of the most popular aswell as most admired vocalists in the field of Carnatic music. She was the first musician toreceive the Bharat Ratna and also the first woman recipient of the title 'Sangeetha Kalanidhi'. If you want to get more information on M S Subbulakshmi and her life history, read the following

biography.

M S Subbulakshmi was born on 16th September 1916, in the Madurai city of Tamil Nadu. Sinceshe was born into a musical family, Subbulakshmi developed an interest in music from a verytender age only. Her first recording was released when she was only ten years old. M SSubbulakshmi received her formal training in Carnatic classical music from SemmangudiSrinivasa Iyer and Hindustani classical music from Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She gave her first

public performance at Kumbakonam, during the Mahamaham festival.Subbulakshmi made her debut at the Madras Music Academy when she was only seventeenyears old. Then onwards started her journey as one of the most successful singers of the country.She performed in numerous languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam,Telugu, Sanskrit and Kannada. M S Subbulakshmi also entered the field of acting and performedin a number of movies. People still remember her for the role of Bhakta Meera in the movie'Meera'. However, after the movie, Subbulakshmi quit acting and concentrated fully on concertmusic.

M S Subbulakshmi married Sadasivam, a freedom fighter, in the year 1940. The couple did nothave their own children. However, Subbulakshmi gave all her motherly love to Sadasivam'schildren from his previous marriage. Subbulakshmi became India's cultural ambassador andtraveled to places like London, New York, Canada, the Far East, etc. Some of her mostnoteworthy concerts outside India took place at UN General Assembly (1966), Royal Albert Hallof London (1982) and 'Festival of India' in Moscow (1987).

Sadasivam left for the holy abode in 1997 and after his death, M S Subbulakshmi stopped giving public performances. The great singer suffered serious illness in the last days of her life. She passed away on 11th December 2004, after experiencing major complications connected with pneumonia and cardiac abnormalities.

Honors and Awards Padma Bhushan Award (1954)Sangeetha Kalanidhi Award (1968)Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974)Padma Vibhushan Award (1975)Kalidasa Samman Award (1988)Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (1990)

8/9/2019 M s subbu

2/2

Bharat Ratna Award (1998)Honored as the court-singer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams