CHENNAI: National Award-winning playback singer Vani Jayaram, passed away on Saturday at her residence in Chennai. She was 78 years old. She was supposed to receive the Padma Bhushan (2023) – the third-highest civilian award in India recently,
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| Vani Jayaram |
Vani Jairam collaborated with some of the biggest composers across various industries and delivered evergreen chartbusters. The talented singer has a number of songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tulu and Oriya to her credit. She won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer thrice and also also received State awards from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Odisha.
She sang several hit songs and notably in director K Viswanath’s films for which she won numerous awards in her collaboration with the Telugu film doyen. The legendary director passed away on Thursday.
She sang songs for Seetamalakshmi (1978), Sruthilayalu (1987), Sankarabharanam and Swati Kiranam. She received her second National award for Sankarabharnam in 1980 and her third National Film Award for the film Swathi Kiranam for the song ‘Anathineeyara Hara’ in 1991.
She won her first National Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal in 1975.
Known as the South Indian Meera Vani Jairam recently completed 50 years as a professional singer and had recorded more than 10,000 songs.