Udit Narayan is an Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Hindi films. He has also sung in various other languages including Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Bhojpuri, Nepali, Malayalam, Assamese, Bagheli and Maithili. He has won 4 National Film Awards and 5 Filmfare Awards with 20 nominations among many others. He got to sing with Mohammed Rafi in his Hindi playback debut in movie Unees-Bees in 1980 and also with Kishore Kumar in the 1980s. He finally made his mark in the 1988 movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak starring Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla, his song "Papa Kehte Hain" was his notable performance which earned him his first Filmfare Award in the 1980s and he established himself in Bollywood Playback Singing. He is the only male singer in the history of the Filmfare Awards to have won in over three decades.
The folk music of Uttarakhand refers to the traditional and contemporary songs of Kumaon and Garhwal regions in the foothills of Himalayas. This music has its root in the lap of nature and the hilly terrain of the region.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra, credited as K. S. Chithra or Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs in various Indian languages, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration with music composers A.R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, Hamsalekha, M. M. Keeravani and with the playback singers KJ Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam over the years. She is regarded as a cultural icon of South Indian states.
Sharada, known as Kavita Krishnamurthy or Kavita Subramaniam, is an Indian playback and classical singer. She has recorded over 50,000 Songs in 46 various languages including Rajasthani, Bengali, Kannada, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Odia, Marathi, English, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Nepali, Assamese, Konkani and other languages. She is the recipient of four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, and the Padmashri which she received in 2005. In 1999, she married noted violinist L. Subramaniam and resides in Bengaluru.
Girija Devi was an Indian classical singer of the Seniya and Banaras gharanas. She performed classical and light classical music and helped elevate the profile of thumri. She died on 24 October 2017.
Surinder Kaur was an Indian singer and songwriter. While she mainly sang Punjabi folk songs, where she is credited for pioneering and popularising the genre, Kaur also recorded songs as a playback singer for Hindi films between 1948 and 1952. For her contributions to Punjabi music, she earned the sobriquet Nightingale of Punjab, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984, and the Padma Shri in 2006.
The Wadali Brothers – Puranchand Wadali and Pyarelal Wadali – are Sufi singers and musicians from Guru Ki Wadali in the Amritsar District in Punjab, India. Pyarelal Wadali, the younger of the two died on 4 March 2018 at the age of 75 due to cardiac arrest at the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Amritsar.
The Garhwali people are an Indian ethnolinguistic group native to the Garhwal, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, who speak Garhwali, an Indo-Aryan language.
Jagar is a ritualized form of ancestor spirit worship which is practiced in the hills of Uttarakhand, both in Garhwal and Kumaon. As a ritual, Jagar is a way in which gods and local deities are woken from their dormant stage and asked for favors or remedies. The ritual is connected to the idea of divine justice and is practiced to seek penance for a crime or to seek justice from the gods for some injustice. The word Jagar comes from the Sanskrit root, Jaga, meaning "to wake".
Padma Sachdev was an Indian poet and novelist. She was the first modern woman poet of the Dogri language. She also wrote in Hindi. She published several poetry collections, including Meri Kavita Mere Geet, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971. She also received the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award in 2001, and the Kabir Samman for poetry for the year 2007-08 given by Government of Madhya Pradesh, Saraswati Samman for the year 2015, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2019.
Shanno Khurana is a noted Indian classical vocalist and composer, from the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of Hindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of the gharana, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, she is known for performing rare bandish and raag, though her singing style includes genres like khayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, tappa, to chaiti and bhajan. Born and brought up in Jodhpur, she started singing on All India Radio in 1945 in Lahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M.Phil. and PhD in music from the Kairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research on folk music of Rajasthan.
Khumanthem Ningol Nameirakpam Ongbi Ibemni Devi is an Indian singer of traditional music, known for her expertise in the Khongjom Praba genre of Manipuri music. The Government of India honored Ibemni Devi in 2012, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Bindhyavasini Devi was an Indian folk musician. She was popularly recognised as Bihar Kokila. She was the founder of Vindhya Kala Mandir, a Patna based music academy promoting folk music, Vindhya Kala Mandir. The academy is associated with Bhatkhande University, Lucknow for 55 years now which is now run by her daughter-in-law Shobha Sinha, son Sudhir Kumar Sinha. She was born in Muzzafarpur in the Indian state of Bihar and specialised in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Magahi folk music. She also sang a popular song, Chhote Dulha Ke, in a movie, Vivah Geet and many of her songs have been released in CD format.
Chandan Tiwari is an Indian folk singer from Bihar. She is known as folk singer and sings in Bhojpuri, Nagpuri, Awadhi and Hindi. She was awarded Sangeet Natak Academy-Bismillah Khan Samman. She was honoured by Bhojpuri Kokila in Kolkata. BAG Films-News 24 awarded her best traditional folk singer. She appeared in India Today Magazine in cover story for her contributions to Indian folk music. She has been singing in various forms of folks like Purabi Sohar, Pachra Gandhi song, River Song, Chhath Song Kajri and Thumri.
Chander Singh Rahi was a prominent folk singer, balladeer, musician, poet, storyteller, and cultural conservator from Uttarakhand, India.
Pritam Bhartwan is a folk singer from Uttarakhand, India. In 2019, he was conferred the Padma Shri honour by the president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, for his contribution to the field of traditional folk art. He also known as jagar Samrat in Uttarakhand. He has received many awards by State government and central government. He is also visiting professor in Cincinnati University and University of Illinois University.
Shyamamani Devi is a Odissi classical music vocalist composer. A disciple of Gurus Singhari Shyamsundar Kar and Balakrushna Dash, she is known for her popular renditions of classical Odissi music, such as Odissi, Chhanda, Champu, etc. authored by medieval Odia musician-poets such as Upendra Bhanja, Kabisurjya Baladeba Ratha, Banamali Dasa, Gopalakrusna and others. She is also known for her renditions of light music such as traditional Odia folk music and adhunika songs. In 2022, she was awarded the Padma Shri for he contributions to Odissi music.
Ajita Srivastava is an Indian singer, educationist and a social worker. Srivastava is known for popularizing and promoting the Kajari folk songs, a popular form of folk music from Mirzapur and the surrounding region. She has been awarded Padma Shri in 2022 by the Government of India for her contributions in the field of arts.
