page_title: K. J. Yesudas
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: K. J. Yesudas / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: മലയാളം: ചെമ്പൈ വൈദ്യനാദ ഭാഗവതരുടെ സ്മാരകം. പാലക്കാട് ജില്ലയിലെ കോട്ടായിയിൽ.
context_page_description: Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and cinematic songs. Yesudas has recorded more than 80,000 songs in a number of Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Odia as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, during a career spanning more than five decades. He is often referred to as Gaanagandharvan.
  Yesudas has performed in most Indian languages except for Punjabi, Assamese, Konkani, and Kashmiri. He has also composed a number of Malayalam film songs during the 1970s and 1980s.
  Yesudas won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer record eight times, the Filmfare Awards South five times, and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer forty-three times, including awards given by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2017 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts.
context_section_description: Yesudas is married to Prabha.  Their marriage was on 1 February 1970. They have three sons, Vinod (b. 1977), Vijay (b. 1979) and Vishal (b. 1981). Their second son Vijay Yesudas is a musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007,2012 and 2018.
  Sree Narayana Guru’s great message, "One religion and One God for all humanity", influenced young Yesudas in his dealings with his fellow men. He had his own heroes among the musicians too. Mohammed Rafi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and Balamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most.
  Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Kollur, Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday in 2000. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple.
  On Sunday, 10 January 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with 'Sangeetharchana' (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja's poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function. All India Radio broadcast the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala. Yesudas also has many songs devoted to Lord Ayyappa including the hit song "Harivarasanam". In 2002, during Marad massacare, he visited the place along with the veteran poet Sugathakumari, and conducted classes against violence. Harivarasanam, a devotional song musical version composed by G. Devarajan, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.
caption: A statue of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar sponsored by Yesudas at Chembai gramam (Kottayi village) in Palakkad; next to Bhagavatar's house.
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