K. J. Yesudas Biography 
K. J. Yesudas is an Indian musician and a playback singer who has recorded more than 50,000 classical, devotional and film songs in various languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Tulu, Malay, Latin, English, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, etc. He has won the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 43 times and the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times. He made a record by singing 16 film songs of four languages in a single day at AVM Studio in Chennai in 2006.
Yesudas was born on 10th January 1940 in Fort Kochi in Cochin in Kerala. His other names are Gana Gandharvan and Dasettan. His father’s name is Augustine Joseph and his mother’s name is Alicekutty. His father was a famous classical singer and stage actor in Malayalam industry. He learned music from his father and later completed his Ganabooshanam course at the R.L.V. Music Academy at Thrippunithura.
He joined the Sree Swati Thirunal music college at Thiruvananthapuram where he was taught by Semmangudy Sreenivasa Iyer but could not complete his studies due to financial problems. He took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. He married Prabha and has three sons Vinod, Vijay and Vishal.
He sang his first song on 14th November 1961. He started his career in films with the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal. He got his break in his music career after the film Bharya. His first movie in Tamil was Konjum Kumari.
He has traveled all over the world to perform concerts. He was made as the member of the International Parliament for Safety and Peace. He received the honorary award by UNESCO for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Peace in the event held at Paris. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he raised funds for the Indian Prime Minister’s National Defense Fund.
He established Tharangani Studio in 1980. He has also acted in some films like Anarkali, Achaani, Nandanam and Boyy Friend. Kairali Channel and Swaralaya jointly gives out Swaralaya Yesudas Award for musicians showing outstanding performance.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 01, 2013
