This morning I woke up to news that the legendary South Indian playback singer S Janaki passed away yesterday, aged 88.
She started singing at an early age in various South Indian languages. Since I only know Tamil songs, I remember listening to her songs such as singara valena deva and her songs from Then Nilavu, which were released in 1961. Then for the longest time she didn’t sing that many Tamil songs, although she was singing in the other languages.
Until Illayaraja came to the scene in 1976. She sang the songs in Annakili. She again rocketed to fame in the Tamil movie industry and after that she sang so many memorable songs with music composed by Illayaraja and the later composers.
Called the Nightingale of South India, she recorded more than 40,000 songs in multiple languages.
Rest in peace. All the artistes of the era when I was growing up are all slowly departing.
daily musings 
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