Artist Bio:
With her rock-solid technique, sure tone, deep spirituality and splendid emotional expression, Carnatic vocalist MS (Madurai Shanmukhavadivu) Subbulakshmi was rightfully considered an Indian national treasure during her lifetime. Thanks to a legion of great recordings, her place among the great vocalists of the 20th century is assured.
She was born in 1916 in the temple city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to a family of famous instrumentalists. While still quite young, she began Carnatic musical training with Madurai Srinivasa Iyer and briefly studied Hindustani music from Pandit Naryan Rao Vyas.
She debuted as a soloist at 17, and with the full support of her beloved husband Thiagarajan Sadavisam (whom she married in 1940), she began acting and performing in films. Her most famous film was 1945's Meera, in which she portrayed the revered medieval poet-saint Meerabai and sang several popular Meera bhajans (Hindu devotional songs attributed to Meerabai). After the huge success of Meera, however, Subbulakshmi turned her career entirely away from film.
While she was an extremely popular performer throughout India, she did not appear abroad as often as other Indian artists of similar renown. However, she did appear at Carnegie Hall in 1977 and at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1982, among other high-profile venues. Her famed New York City recital has been reissued as a double-CD set by RPG/Gramophone Co. of India as MS Subbulakshmi at Carnegie Hall.
Among her many awards were the Padma Bhushan in 1954 and the Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1968; she was the first female artist to be awarded the latter title. Subbulakshmi was also named the Bharat Ratna ("Jewel of India," the nation's highest civilian award) in 1998 by the president of India. After her husband's death in 1997, Subbulakshmi withdrew from performing, and passed away in 2004.
An intensely devout person, Subbulakshmi specialized in singing kritis (religious songs) and such religious hymns as the Bhajagovindam, a series of praises for the god Krishna written by the philosopher Sankaracharya, and the Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam (a recitation of the 1,000 names of the god Vishnu).
She recorded for EMI/Gramophone Co. of India, and some of these extraordinary recordings have been reissued on disc. Fans will also want the superb five-CD anthology Legends: MS Subbulakshmi, the Supreme (Saregama/RPG/Gramophone Co. of India), which includes performances from her films. —Anastasia Tsioulcas
