The beloved Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar has died in hospital aged 92, after testing positive for Covid-19 last month.
She was admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on 8 January, and her condition later deteriorated after she was diagnosed with pneumonia, according to local media reports.
Known as the “Nightingale of India” and with a career spanning seven decades, Mangeshkar was credited with voicing 30,000 songs in different languages and was the voice behind some of Bollywood’s best-known hits.
Tributes to the singer were led by prime minister Narendra Modi, who recalled “unforgettable” meetings with the singer and expressed his condolences to the family. “I grieve with my fellow Indians on the passing away of Lata Didi [sister],” he wrote on Twitter.
Indian transport minister Nitin Gadkari, a politician from Maharashtra state who was one of the first to arrive at the hospital following her death, tweeted saying: “Lata didi will always remain an inspiration for all of us. May god give peace to her soul.”
Born in 1929, Mangeshkar was the eldest of five siblings in a prominent musical family. Two of her sisters have also been noted playback artists in the Indian film industry.
She started singing at the age of 13 with songs in her mother tongue Marathi. However, soon her success took her to the Hindi film industry where she lent her voice to generations of film actresses from the 60s to 2000s.
One of her most famous songs is the patriotic ballad “Ae mere watan ke logon” (Oh, people of my country), a rendition of which once moved India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to tears. The song is still played on India’s Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations.
She has been the recipient of some of the highest honours in India, including the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award, and several national film awards. Mangeshkar was the first Indian to perform at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1974.
