Lata Mangeshkar passed away on February 6, 2022.
Reportedly, Lata Mangeshkar considered music synonymous with worshipping God.
The Queen of Melody, Lata Mangeshkar, in her career spanning over eight decades, gained immense love, fame and recognition. She was one of the greatest playback singers who delivered multiple hits with her melodious voice and always the hearts of our audience with her.
The singer was ruling the music industry in Bollywood with her sweet and melodious voice and has been immortalised through her songs. She was also honoured with the Bharat Ratna award by the government of India. Unfortunately, she passed away on February 6, 2022, due to health-related complications from COVID-19.
She would have turned 94 on September 28, 2023. On the occasion of her birth anniversary, a trivia about has come to light. Did you know that the singer always recorded her songs barefoot? Reportedly, Lata Mangeshkar considered music synonymous with worshipping God and hence always recorded her songs barefoot.
In an interview, Javed Ali once shared an anecdote of Lata Mangeshkar getting an opportunity to display her musical talent at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In the interview, he also shared about how Lata Mangeshkar would record and sing songs barefoot. He said, “Lataji was supposed to perform and Dilip Saab was supposed to introduce her. As soon as Dilip Saab introduced her, Lataji came on stage without slippers. When Dilip Kumar saw this, he told Lataji that this is England, it’s cold you may get sick, but Lataji refused and said, ‘I never sing a song wearing slippers, as for me it’s a prayer.’”
As a child, Lata Mangeshkar was able to sing very difficult tunes with much ease. It was then, her father realised that she would become a great singer one day. However, her father’s sudden death led to her being the support system of the family. This created an opportunity for her to act in movies. Even though she did not enjoy acting. Finally, in 1949, she got an opportunity to sing her first Hindi song titled Aayega Aanewala, from the movie Mahal. The movie starred Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and Vijayalakshmi. Here onwards, a musical journey, kickstarted and continued till her last breath.
Fans considered her to be an avatar of the Goddess of music, Saraswati. She has ventured into various film industries like Marathi and even Bengali. Her first Marathi song was in the movie Kiti Hasaal in the year 1942. During her lifetime, she has been the recipient of many awards like the Filmfare Award, National Award, Maharashtra Government Award, Padma Vibhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Filmfare Life Time Achievement Award, and Rajiv Gandhi Award.
She is also known for briefly holding a record in Guinness World Records for recording more than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1974.
