Legendary singer Vani Jairam conferred the Padma Bhushan award

Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India. She was among the list of nine notable personalities from various fields to receive the award this year.

With a career spanning over five decades, Vani Jairam has recorded around 10,000 songs in different Indian languages. Originally hailing from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, she went on to sing in several Indian languages including Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia,  Gujarati, Haryanvi, Assameese, Tulu, and Bengali. The legendary singer has also recorded thousands of devotional songs and performed several solo concerts across the world.

Vani Jairam made her debut as a playback singer with the 1971 Hindi film Guddi which was directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Although she had recorded three songs for the film, the track titled Bole Re Papihara, with visuals featuring Jaya Bachchan, became a hit that launched her name as a talent to watch out for. Over the years, she developed tremendous versatility and became the go-to singer for challenging compositions. Vani Jairam collaborated with some of the biggest composers across various industries and delivered evergreen chartbusters. Some of her frequent collaborators include composers Ilaiyaraaja, MS Viswanathan, Vijaya Bhaskar, OP Nayyar, RD Burman, V Dakshinamoorthy, MS Baburaj, G Devarajan, Johnson, and Madan Mohan. Apart from her striking solo numbers, her duets with the likes of SP Balasubrahmanyam, PB Sreenivas, KJ Yesudas, P: Jayachandran, Dr Rajkumar, TM Soundarrajan, S Janaki, Asha Bhosle, and Mohammed Rafi cemented her place in the annals of Indian music history.  

One of the most celebrated singers of India, Vani Jairam won the National Award thrice for Apoorva Raagangal, Sankarabharanam, and Swathi Kiranam. She also received State awards from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Odisha.

Other Padma Awardees from the world of cinema are composer MM Keeravaani and actor Raveena Tandon, who will be awarded the Padma Shri.

The Padma Bhushan award will be conferred by the President of India at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan. The date of the ceremony, which is typically held around March/April of the year, is yet to be announced.