No.13, IIIrd Street, Abhiramapuram, Chennai - 600 018.
Pic He is basically a classical music based song singer and is also an active carnatic concert artist. He is THE dominant singer in the Malayalam film world since his `Chemmen' hits and is quite popular in Tamil films also. His first song in Tamil was Neeyum bommai in the film `Bommai'. His Vennai-soft serene voice goes well with slow and mild songs and is best suited for devotional songs. As a matter of fact, his devotional albums are quite popular.

Yesudas's early songs

K.J.Yesudoss' Best

ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THE MAESTRO

Extracted from India Currents Calendar Magazine:

In the world of music, K.J. Yesudas is truly exceptional - his success in the dual spheres of popular music as well as classical music is unparalleled. Yesudas was initiated into Karnatik music at a very young age by his father Augustine Joseph. He made his stage debut at age 12, and graduated from the Trivandrum Music Academy in 1958.

Yesudas's success in the world of popular music has been phenomenal. His first playback song was in the movie Kalpadukal in 1961. Besides Malayalam, he sang in all other South Indian languages. In 1976, he started singing for Hindi movies, and films in other North Indian languages. Today he is the only Indian musician to have recorded songs in all Indian languages except Kashmiri and Assamiya.

He received the Padmashri from the President of India in 1977. He received the first National Award in 1977 for singing in the film Achanum Bappayum, his second National Award for the film Gayathri, the third National Award in 1978 for film Chitchor, the fourth National Award for the Telugu film Megasandesham, his fifth National Award for the flm Unnikale Oru Katha Parayaam, and his sixth in 1992 for the film Bharatham.

The film Chitchor also won him a Filmfare Special Award. Alaap got him the Sur Singar Samsad Award and Dada the Filmfare award in 1980. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate degree from the Annamalai University in recognition for his contributions to music and art. He received the Lata Mangeshkar Award in 1991.

Besides these national awards, Yesudas is the recipient of 16 Kerala State Awards, eight State Awards from TamilNadu, 5 state Awards from Karnataka, four State Awards from Andra Pradesh and one State Award from Bengal.(Any idea which is the movie?)In 1992 he received the distinguished honor of "Star of Cochin" from the citizens of Cochin. The government of Kerala has named Yesudas "Asthana Gayakan".

In 1971, Yesudas with his musical troop traveled from one end of Kerala to the other end to raise funds for the Prime Miniater's National DefenseFund during the India-Pakistan war. Yesudas is the chairman of the Kerala Academy. He launched a recording studio Tharangini in Trivandrum in 1980, where he records and reproduces the music cassettes. He also started his Tharanga-Nisan music school in Trivandrum. Yesudas became a Senate member in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace, an organization incorporated in the U.S.

Today, Yesudas has sung more than 20,000 songs in different languages. he has conducted more stageconcerts than any other performer in India. In spite of all his success in popular music, he enjoys classical Karnatik music more than any other. He is one of the few singers in the world who sings in the classical idiom as well as he does in the popular. Yesudas lives in Madras with his wife Prabha, sons Vinod, Vishal and Vijay.