Kattassery Joseph Yesudas or KJ Yesudas as he is popularly known, stormed the music world with his entry through 'Neeyum Bommai' from the film Bommai directed by the late Veena maestro S Balachandar. It was 'Dheivam Thandha Veedu' from Aval Oru Thodarkadhai though, which made him popular and a visible voice to watch out for.
From then on, there was no looking back for this versatile singer, who also has had a strong grounding in classical music from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bagavathar.
Yesudas' contribution to the world of music is phenomenal, to say the least. How else can one explain the huge fan following that he has in his home state, among others? It is the dream of any wannabe singer to tread the path he walked in, for he opened new doors in music through his classical and film singing and has always taken care to strike a perfect balance between the two. Many singers followed suit as the path was well laid by him.
In playback singing alone, Yesudas has sung more than 40,000 songs for many languages and the long list includes Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English.
What most strikes about this talented person is his devotion towards music and his Gurus. He respects all religions and sings on all Gods, be it Lord Ayyappa or Allah. Even in a recent concert held on Christmas, he sang a number on Jesus Christ, which was well appreciated by the audiences, who generally do not get to hear such songs often.
Many singers in his hometown consider him a role model and even try imitating him. He also had the magnanimity to refuse some awards saying that he has already received many and that awards should be given to the young and upcoming musicians in order to encourage them. This was not surprising to those who knew Yesudas the man.
Vijay, the son of the singer, has taken on his father's path and has rendered many hit numbers in films. For instance, Kodi kodi minnalgal from Jayam and Thavani potta Deepavali from Sandakozhi.
Yesudas, the ace singer who has made us proud with his contribution to music, is celebrating his birthday today. We at MusicMazaa wish him a birthday that's as wonderful as his voice.
