Bollywood icon Lata Mangeshkar dies after catching Covid: Indian singer known as ‘the Nightingale’ who said her voice was a ‘gift from God’ will get a state funeral after losing 28-day hospital battle aged 92
- Lata Mangeshkar, 92, has passed away in Mumbai this morning after being hospitalised for Covid last month
- The legendary Bollywood icon leaves behind a legacy of music which she defined as tributes to her pour in
- Ms Mangeshkar’s classically trained, lilting and adaptable voice has earned her the title of ‘the Nightingale’
Lata Mangeshkar, one of India’s biggest cultural icons and a Bollywood singer who defined music and melody for generations with her lilting voice, has died today aged 92.
She was hospitalised on January 11 after being infected with what her doctor confirmed to be Covid-19 and this morning passed away from multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalisation.
Ms Mangeshkar, whose classically trained singing voice and a range that extended over more than three octaves shaped the continent’s music for more than 70 years, saw her voice recorded for music in more than Indian 2,000 films.
Lata Mangeshkar, one of India’s biggest cultural icons and a singer who defined music and melody for generations of her countrymen, has died aged 92
An artist paints a tribute to late Ms Mangeshkar after she passed away, in Mumbai, India today. This morning she died of ‘multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalisation post Covid-19’
The singer’s stunning voice has rung out of television sets, on crackly airwaves and from movie theatres for most of independent India’s three quarters of a century, making hers the defining voice of many generations and earning her the title of ‘the Nightingale’.
Dr Pratit Samdani, who was treating her at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, confirmed she passed away after being hospitalised for Covid according to Reuters TV partner ANI.
‘I am anguished beyond words,’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter.
She will receive a state funeral, and the government will observe state mourning with the flag at half-mast through Monday, the Home Ministry said in a statement.
‘The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us,’ the prime minister wrote, using an affectionate term for older sister.
The only songs she refused to sing were cabaret numbers and songs that had bawdy or racy lyrics, saying in later interviews those did not fit with her personal values
Tributes to the late singer are pouring in. She is survived by her four siblings and was hospitalised on January 11 after being infected with what a doctor told Reuters was Covid-19
An ambulance carrying the body of Lata Mangeshkar, arrives at her home in Mumbai this morning. She will receive a state funeral, and the government will observe state mourning with the flag at half-mast through Monday
An auto-rickshaw driver Satyawan Gite had his vehicle decorated with pictures and message of recovery for the now passed singer last month
‘She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people.’
‘VOICE A GIFT FROM GOD’
Born in 1929 in pre-independence India, Ms Mangeshkar began singing in her teens, and in a career spanning 73 years sang more than an estimated 15,000 songs in 36 languages.
She enthralled listeners with her lilting voice and sheer range, singing everything from patriotic songs to romantic numbers, both in films and albums.
Ms Mangeshkar made her name in music for Bollywood movies. Her big break came when she recorded the hit Uthaye ja unke sitam for the movie Andaz (1949).
After that, the Nightingale would go on to become the singing voice for almost every leading lady, according to Britannica.
Media yesterday gathered outside the hospital where Ms Mangeshkar had been admitted in the ICU since last month as her health condition deteriorated in Mumbai
Born in 1929 in pre-independence India, Ms Mangeshkar (pictured in 2007) began singing in her teens, and in a career spanning 73 years sang more than an estimated 15,000 songs in 36 languages
Ms Mangeshkar with her sister Asha Bhosle during the Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar Awards in Mumbai in 2013. She enthralled music-mad Indians with her lilting voice and sheer range
Ms Mangeshkar gives an award to singer Suresh Wadkar at the late Deenanath Smruti Pratishthan in Mumbai in 2013. The late singer enthralled listeners with her lilting voice and sheer range, singing everything from patriotic songs to romantic numbers, both in films and albums
Other Bollywood personalities and politicians offered condolences.
‘Love, respect and prayers,’ tweeted Oscar- and Grammy-winning Indian musician A R Rahman. Mangeshkar sang a number of his award-winning songs.
Classically trained, Mangeshkar moulded her voice to the demands of singing for Bollywood movies, even voicing songs in her 60s for an actress who was in her 20s.
Her songs motivated millions of Indians during wars with China and Pakistan to pay homage to the defence forces. Some of her songs are used as prayers in temples, shrines and schools.
‘My voice is a gift from God,’ she once told an interviewer. ‘I learned to emote through my voice. When I sang a lullaby, I became a mother, when it was a romantic song, I was a lover.’
The world of Bollywood – where movies were unthinkable without at least six songs and where everything from romance to grief was narrated with the help of a ballad – was where Mangeshkar, pictured in 2012, made her name
Police stood outside Ms Mangeshkar’s residence today. Classically trained, Mangeshkar moulded her voice to the demands of singing for Bollywood movies, even voicing songs in her 60s for an actress who was in her 20s
Ambulance parked outside the Lata Mangeshkar’s house in Mumbai earlier today. ‘My voice is a gift from God,’ she once told an interviewer. ‘I learned to emote through my voice. When I sang a lullaby, I became a mother, when it was a romantic song, I was a lover’
The only songs she refused to sing were cabaret numbers and songs that had bawdy or racy lyrics, saying in later interviews those did not fit with her personal values.
Mangeshkar nevertheless dominated the Hindi film industry for almost five decades until the 2000s, along with her younger sister Asha Bhosle.
Ms Mangeshkar’s detractors accused her of using her Bollywood clout to limit the entry of newcomers. Her influence was such that Mumbai authorities in 2006 scrapped a planned highway flyover after she objected that it would disturb her privacy.
Known for soft-spokenness and wearing a saree, her hair in two schoolgirl-like braids, Mangeshkar received India´s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2001. She was awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the Legion of Honour, in 2009.
‘Music is incomplete without your voice,’ actor Amitabh Bachchan said of Mangeshkar in 2019, commemorating her 90th birthday. ‘It has done the work of saints.’
The Nightingale’s rise to fame: from struggling artist to songbird
Lata Mangeshkar was born to sing. She recorded her first song aged 13, for a film called Kiti Hasaal and even though it didn’t make the final cut, thus began her forage into becoming a playback icon.
And it would seem the arts ran in the family as her father, Dinanath Mangeshkar, was a well-known stage personality known as Master Dinanath, according to Britannica.
He trained Ms Mangeshkar, the eldest of five, from when she was a five-year-old. The aspiring singer struggled to make it big as a teenager, because of the big personalities dominating the Hindi film industry in the 1940s.
However in 1949 her big break came with the recording of ‘Uthaye ja unke sitam’ for the movie Andaz (1949), chronicling a dramatic love triangle, which became the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time of its release.
After that Ms Mangeshkar went on to become the quintessential singing voice behind every major leading lady, sealing her place as a cornerstone component of Hindi cinema.
Her vocal range could bring both a youthful joyful energy and a sad crooning romantic, with music directors often composing in such a way to take advantage of her impressive versatility and range.
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was even once moved to tears by her rendition of ‘Ae mere watan ke logo’, a patriotic song by the poet poet Pradeep.
By 1991, she was credited with having made 30,000 recordings in 14 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. She was awarded with one of India’s highest civilian honours, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1999 and was presented with the prestigious performance award Bharat Ratna in 2001.
She is only the second film celebrity to have received it.
And it seems as though Ms Mangeshkar too felt it was her destiny to sing. She was once quoted as saying: ‘I feel God has sent me to Earth to sing.
‘I started singing when I was five, but I don’t think I’ve worked as hard as many other people.’
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