National Award-winning legendary playback singer Vani Jairam, who was announced to receive the Padma Bhushan – the third-
highest civilian award in India recently, died on Saturday. She was 78 years old.
At the age of 8, she gave her first public performance at the All India Radio, Madras.
Vani’s career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She did playback for over one thousand Indian movies recording over 10,000 songs. In addition, she recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.
She has sung in several Indian languages ( 19 languages ), such as Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Gujarati, Haryanvi,Assameese,Tulu and Bengali languages.
Vani won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer three times and also has won State Government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
In 2012, she was honored with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South for her achievements in South Indian film music.
