Her Voice Was Recognized by a Billion People

Lata Mangeshkar, legendary Indian singer, dies at 92
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 6, 2022 10:00 AM CST

Lata Mangeshkar, a legendary Indian singer with a prolific, groundbreaking catalog and a voice recognized by more than a billion people in South Asia, has died at 92. The iconic singer died Sunday morning of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai, per the AP. She was hospitalized on Jan. 11 after contracting COVID-19. Over the course of nearly eight decades, Mangeshkar was a major presence as a playback singer, performing songs that were later lip-synced by actors in India’s lavish Bollywood musicals. She was also fondly revered as the “Melody Queen” and “Nightingale of India.”

Mangeshkar’s songs, always filled with emotion, were often sad and mostly dealt with unrequited love, but others involved national pride and were used to motivate Indians and the country's defense forces during times of wars with neighboring Pakistan and China. Born in Maharashtra on Sept. 28, 1929, Mangeshkar first sang at religious gatherings with her father, who was also a trained singer. After she moved to Mumbai, India’s film industry capital, she became a star with immensely popular appeal, enchanting audiences with her smooth but sharp voice and immortalizing Hindi music for decades to come.

Few musicians defined versatility like Mangeshkar, who issued her debut song in 1942 for a Bollywood film when she was just 13. Soon after, she became an icon of Hindi singing, lending her voice to over 5,000 songs in over a thousand Bollywood and regional language films. She sang for Bollywood’s earliest women superstars like Madhubala and Meena Kumari and later went on to give voice to modern divas like Priyanka Chopra. A sign of her renown: Mangeshkar received a state funeral in Mumbai, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew in from New Delhi to pay his respects.

(More obituary stories.)

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