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Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (popularly known as M.S. or M.S.S./M.S. Maami) (September 16, 1916 - December 11, 2004) was a renowned Carnatic vocalist. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.she has sung in many recogonized sabas.Bharatha Rathna M.S. Subbalakshmi, popularly called MS, was perhaps the most charasmatic and popular Carnatic musician we have known. She captured the popular imagination like no other and was the face of classical music for both the masses and critics for over 6 decades.
M.S. Subbalakshmi was born in the temple town of Madurai on September 16th, 1916, to veena player Shanmukhavadivu. Her Grandmother Akkammal was a violinist. Her father, a lawyer by profession, was a music lover.
Her first guru Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar passed away rather too soon. But she kept practicing on her own and having a musician mother helped a lot. Her first recording was at the age of ten, when she recorded a couple of songs for HMV in Madras.
She started giving concerts at a tender age, first accompanying her mother and then as a solo vocalist. She was the child prodigy of Madurai. She has by now given concerts all over the world like the ones at Edinburgh festival and at the United Nations, Carnegie Hall as the the inagural concert at the festival of India in London in 1982.
In 1940 she married Sadasivam, a well known figure in the Madras Congress circle, and a protege of Rajaji. They had met four years earlier and with his wide connections in the journalistic and political world, he became instrumental in the continued success of her already flourishing career. |
