M S Subbulakshmi was born on 16 Sep 1916. To commemorate the 100th birth anniversary an event Homage to MS is being held in her honour on the same date at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, which would include performances by twenty singers and dancers on the stage she sang in the 1970s.
She was the first musician ever to be awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour to be awarded by the Government of India. It is a universally acknowledged fact that music world produces a phenomenon like her, once in a century. No wonder Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister said of her “Who am I, a mere Prime Minister before a Queen, a Queen of Music”.
MS had a long singing career of spanning 70 years, starting from the age of 11. She has followers who have the attitude of devotees, not only in South India but all over the world. Apart from singing on Stage, she also acted in a few Tamil films, early in her life.
An interesting aspect of her life is the colour shade of her Saree, which she wore—MS Blue—which has been named after her, possibly the only colour with a human touch !
After a fulfilling life, she died in 2004, leaving behind a glorious legacy. Both the Government of India and the United Nations honoured her by issuing a postage stamp in 2005.
The performers on 16th Sep 2016, who will be singing on the same stage as MS sang once, are Ratna Srikantiah, Pushkala Gopal, Shruti Sriram, Annapoorna Kuppuswamy, Srikanth Sarma, Veena Pani, Neetha Kalluri, Kavya Rajagopalan, Sandhya Anantraman, Prakriti Ganguly, Deepa Vishwamohan, Dura Ranga Natchiyar, Ranjitha Chowalloor, Arifa Khan, Biranavi Kirupakaran, Shivani Sekar, Abeesa Mahendran, Srinidhi, Jayalakshmi and accompanied on the violin by Achuthan Sripathmanathan.
The event is free to the audience and all are welcome.
