Best female solos

Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 2

Amirbai Karnataki-Parul Ghosh-Khursheed-Kanan Devi September 19, 2022

And the Award for the Best Female Solo singer goes to ? If you browse through the Wrap Up 1 regarding the best solos of 1943, it was clearly a one-horse race with KL Saigal being the Pole Star. During Saigal-Noorjehan-era there was no female Saigal, or as I have said earlier a number of […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 2

Noorjehan-Amirbai Karnataki October 7, 2020

And the Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to? When Noorjehan visited India in 1982 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Indian talkie movies, one of the songs she chose to sing was Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara from Village Girl (1945), composed by Shyam Sundar, to a deafening applause. […]

Read the full article

Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Ravi and Lata Mangeshkar November 28, 2019

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929) Lata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 2

Noorjehan-Amirbai Karnataki-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya November 9, 2019

And the SoY Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to? As the readers would recall from Wrap Up 1, the Award for the Best Male Solo turned out to be a one-horse race, thanks to KL Saigal’s superlative songs in the film Shahjahan, composed equally superbly by the Great Mughal Naushad. Lata Mangeshkar […]

Read the full article

Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Ravi and Asha Bhosle September 8, 2019

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar (Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 2

Suraiya-Amirbai Katnataki-Noorjehan-Uma Devi-Shamshad Begum-Zohrabai Ambalewali July 4, 2018

And the SoY award for the Best Female Singer goes to? This was the year of female playback singers. Compared to 19 male solos as discussed in the Wrap Up 1, female solos numbered 67 (N Venkataraman counted 69) in the list of 117/119 Memorable Songs (referred to also as Master List) in my overview […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 2

Amirbai Karnataki-Rajkumari-Zeenat Begum-Suraiya-Surinder Kaur July 13, 2016

And the SoY Award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Playback Singer goes to? As the readers would recall from the overview post on the best songs of 1949, this was a great year for the ‘other’ singers, and female singers in general. There were about 80 female solos in my select list of 160 (the […]

Read the full article

Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 2

Suraiya, Rajkumari, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt August 29, 2015

And the award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Singer goes to? This year, too, I faced the familiar dilemma I faced last year while reviewing the best songs of 1951: whether to make a combined list of the best female solos or split it in two – Lata Mangeshkar and ‘Others’. Male solos which I […]

Read the full article