By Prior Beharry
THE Nightingale of Bollywood has died.
Lata Mangeshkar, one of the most iconic singers of Indian music, passed away in the Mumbai hospital on Sunday. She was admitted last month after testing positive for Covid-19.
The songress was 92.
Mangeshkar sang more than 30,000 songs across 36 languages according to the BBC.
She was the voice of many Bollywood actors who lip-synced to her songs – a norm in such movies.
In 2001 she received India’s highest civilian honour – the Bharat Ratna.
She never married and loved cricket and cars.
Her younger sister Asha Bhosle is also a celebrated Bollywood singer.
Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929, in Madhya Pradesh.
Under her father, Mangeshkar began learning music at the age of five.
After her father’s death, the family moved to Mumbai, then known as Bombay, and Mangeshkar, as a teenager, began singing for Marathi movies.
She acted but didn’t like it and got her big break in 1949 in a song called Aayega Aanewala in the movie Mahal.
Tributes poured in as President of India Ram Nath Kovind said her death was “heartbreaking” and her accomplishments were “incomparable”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled.”
Mangeshkar’s popularity in India was rivalled throughout the Indian diaspora where she was loved for her harmonious and flawless voice.
Over the many decades of her illustrious career, she performed in many countries including Trinidad when she starred in two shows at the Jean Pierre Complex in 1980, leaving her audience mesmerised.
