Talk:K. J. Yesudas

message: It is mentioned that Yesudas is Ashthana Gayakan of Kerala. This is not correct. A while ago the government decided to confer this title on him, but then a controversy ensued and Yesudas himself said he would not accept it. Period. 
The state does not have an 'official singer', nor does the great man need any ornamental title.
Rajankanjirakunnil (talk) 05:18, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Career

message: Similar treatment as that prescribed below for 'Scholarship' is recommended. Splashprince 06:12, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Section on 'Role models'

message: This section could be subsumed under the 'Background and Career' section to achieve greater conciseness. Splashprince 06:09, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Section on 'Scholarship'

message: There are numerous Internet hyperlinks listed at the base of the article. Can someone please check each of these links to make sure they are valid and functional? Splashprince 06:03, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Web links to Yesudas songs

message: Jesudas' name, birthplace, year of birth, and his career description are very easily and clearly found in the article. I think we do not need to repeat it in the infobox where his photo is found. Could you all take a look into this and possibly come to a consensus to remove it for the sake of conciseness? Thanks. Splashprince 05:54, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  You have a good point there -- that readers can very quickly glean vital information about Yesudas from infobox. Appreciate your feedback, thank you. Splashprince 08:56, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Alert: Superfluous information in photo/info box

message: Has Yesudas received honorary doctorates or has he earned one from research and completion of a PhD thesis? If its only the former, then the use of the 'Dr.' title alongside his name is inappropriate. Splashprince 11:15, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks for writing back, Bharatveer. It is fine if KJ Yesudas (one of my favourite vocalists) is referred to as "Dr." by most people. The inclusion of Dr. before his name, right at the beginning of the article, however, can be misleading (some, especially people unfamiliar with him, may think he is a medical doctor or someone who has completed a PhD research thesis in a particular field). Perhaps a reference to KJ Yesudas as a Dr. could come later in the article (inserted, perhaps sparingly and tastefully), or could be safely omitted, because \appending a Dr. before his name is not necessary to stress how great KJ Yesudas is (his greatness in the musical realm is assured). Even Albert Einstein (not to mention other scientists who have earned research doctorates) is not grandly proclaimed as Dr. Albert Einstein in articles referring to him (including the Wikipedia entry on him). Splashprince 00:32, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I dont consider 'Dr' as a grand proclamation of one's greatness .Bharatveer 04:30, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have inserted "usually referred to as to accomodate the Dr." Bharatveer 14:02, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Very good job done, Bharatveer. Thanks for your apt modification. Splashprince 01:47, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Doctorates awarded to K.J. Yesudas

message: I think there no need of advanced training option. Chembai  allready introduced in Scholorship.  So there is need sub article like advaned classic training. It shows like praising Chembai.
::Strongly agree. That section strays away from the main story, which is about KJ Yesudas. It is adequate that it is mentioned that Yesudas was a student of Chembai. To ramble on about him being grateful to Chembai, or the possibility that he may have been nowhere without Chembai, are stuff for interview articles or magazine features. It must be borne in mind that Wikipedia aims to be encyclopaedic -- concise, to the point, and covers the essentials. Other material, elaborations etc. can be referred to in the reference section or in the weblinks section. [Also, please read and give feedback about my discussion on the 'Scholarship' and 'Role Model' section on this talk page: they suffer the same problem as this new section]. Splashprince 09:02, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree. That section stands out. IMO, it can be deleted, and if someone considers it really necessary, a line or so added to another section about Chembai. Tintin (talk) 09:00, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Advanced training 

message: This article can feature albums and concert details fully since it already contains a lot of information on them. I have updated it with information found in other articles. Even after updation, the article is below the 32Kb average limit suggested by Wikipedia.
The objective of this exercise is to maintain a comprehensive page on Yesudas without having bits and pieces of same information in several articles. I request users to not revert or remove data without proper reasons or discussion here. ­ ॐ Kris (☎ talk | contribs) 12:05, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Maintaining a comprehensive page on Yesudas 

message: I have removed most of the external links found in the article. A large portion of these are online newspaper articles, which could be better utilised to substantiate facts or statements made in the main text about K.J. Yesudas, or as a source of essential information that could be included in the main text. I append the weblinks that have been removed from the main text here so that someone could in the future read through some of the news articles that these weblinks link to and see if good information could be derived from them to improve the article:
* Site Dedicated to K.J. Yesudas
* International Parliament for Safety and Peace  
* Read an article in news paper Deccan Herald Monday, March 13, 2006 Music concert at Girinagar
* Read news in  newspaper The Hindu National, Saturday, Jan 26, 2002 Padmabhushan Awardees 2002
* Read an article in news paper The Hindu, Entertainment   Superficial brilliance
* Read an article in the news paper The Hindu, Entertainment , Ahimsa Album
* Read an article in the news paper The Hindu, Sunday, Dec 11, 2005 ,  Ghantasala Music festival
*  Read an article in the news paper The Hindu, Entertainment in Friday, Jul 26, 2002 , Music festival Thirupathi
* Read an article in the news paper The Hindu, Entertainment  Friday, Jul 26, 2002 , Tharangam music festival
*Read an article in the news paper The Hindu, Entertainment  Friday, Mar 11, 2005  , Chembai music festival, Palakkad
* Read the article in The Hindu, Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 Telugu samiti honours Yesudas, Susheela
*Read the article in Deccan Herald, Sunday, February 27, 2005  , Arts & culture  A word with Yesudas
*Read the article in Times of India, 3 Aug, 2006 Yagna for tsunami victims
* Read the article in The Hindu, Friday, Feb 24, 2006  Mega music nite in honour of Jesudas
*  Read the article in  Khaleej Times 24 March 2006  Music lives forever, believes Padmashree Yesudas 
* Read the article in The Hindu, Friday, Dec 1, 2006  One for the records,  16 songs in four languages on the same day  —The preceding unsigned comment was added by AppleJuggler (talk • contribs) 13:26, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed the large number of external links; many could instead be used as valuable sources of reference in main text 

message: #Keep the article in prose form. Remove facts inserted in point form (such as the section on 'Scholarship') and organise them as prose.
#The very long list under the 'Titles and Awards' section does not befit a good encyclopedia article. Please remove most of the titles and awards there; all you need to mention is the major or important titles or awards received by K.J. Yesudas, and express these in prose form.
#Please provide sources of references. Try to provide reference for as many statements made in the article as you can, to substantiate these claims. If not, who knows these statements/claims true or not? People would doubt the credibility of the article, and this is not a mark of a good article. Please make use of the news articles from reputable newspapers in the comment above, and also try to look for academic books or journals where something may be mentioned about Yesudas. Some facts from his official website may also be used, but not from fan websites.
#Integrate the 'Family' section into the larger text. It is currently too thin to stand on its own. Better would be if this could be included in a subsection about his 'Early life and Career', maybe, or made shorter and attached somewhere in a much improved, two-paragraph lead section. The 'Music Company' section could also be made briefer, and integrated into the main text.
#The main text could be broken up into various subsections.
#A few more images of Yesudas, such as during his younger years, or during a recording session would be helpful. But please make sure that the image fulfills the free use requirement of Wikipedia. Some form of fair use images such as an image of a music album cover or from his promotional poster may be acceptable.
#For some guidance or example on how to structure the article, please see the A-class article on Ilaiyaraaja.
AppleJuggler 13:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other tips for turning this into a high-quality article 

message: I removed a large amount of unsourced and POV material and then thought better of it and reverted, since a look at the talk page showed me that this artist has many fans more interested in this page than I.  But, please, folks, this page needs to be brought up to Wikipedia standards.  It isn't very useful to have opinionated (POV) material, regardless of how great you think this artist is -- if he is really great, simply give the plain facts and they will speak for themselves, since he has an impressive number of awards, et cetera. Anything else runs the risk of looking like self-promotion.  And I echo the above suggestion to look at the entry for Ilaiyaraaja, which has 69 properly-referenced citations and provides lots of interesting information without sounding like a fan magazine. It might be a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the long run so that people unfamiliar with this artist (like me) can find information they feel they can trust.  Accounting4Taste 22:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have just removed a few paragraphs of unattributed material that reads like it came from a fan magazine -- non-notable and unsourced material -- opinion and POV -- and one completely incomprehensible paragraph.  If you find this unacceptable, then I urge you to FIND SOURCES for these assertions before you return them.  Read Wikipedia: Biography.  This article needs references and citations from impartial third-party sources.  Wikipedia is not a fan magazine.  Apparently this artist deserves our respect, and I would like this article to reflect that. If you want to honour this artist, then do so by improving this article to Wikipedia standards.  Accounting4Taste 17:06, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removing unsourced and POV material 

message: If somebody has reliable refereces to these , they can be added to article to make the article better.
Chavakiran (talk) 12:38, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  What is his current place of residence, current status etc.... 

message: It has been discovered that this book:
*Gupta, Om. Encyclopaedia of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Gyan Publishing House, 2006. , 9788182053892. 
Contains significant amounts of material plagiarized from Wikipedia articles. (Some other books from the same publisher also have this problem). There is no practical way of determining which material came from Wikipedia, and which came from other sources. Further, widespread plagiarism is an indication of poor scholarship. For those reasons, and according to Wikipedia policy, WP:CIRCULAR, I will deleting all citations to the book. However I will not delete the material that cites it, as there's no indication that the material is inaccurate. For more background, see WP:RSN#Circular references: Gyan Publishing and ISHA Books, or the archive after it goes there.   Will Beback  talk   23:04, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Encyclopaedia of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

message: I dont think he has sung 55,000 songs. Even SPB has sung close to 50,000 and also Lata and Asha have sung less than that figure.Vensatry (talk) 06:27, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  55000 songs 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: It would be nice to know in which year Yesudas first sang his version of Harivarasanam. 
--84.191.187.42 (talk) 23:38, 10 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  When was Yesudas' Harivarasanam version created? 

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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111205230708/http://www.stateofkerala.in/news/k%20j%20yesudas%20the%20indian%20play%20back%20singing%20legend.php to http://www.stateofkerala.in/news/k%20j%20yesudas%20the%20indian%20play%20back%20singing%20legend.php
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120124040600/http://www.asianetindia.com/news/kj-yesudas-completes-50-glorious-years-singer_300940.html to http://www.asianetindia.com/news/kj-yesudas-completes-50-glorious-years-singer_300940.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100531061214/http://www.indien-netzwerk.de/navigation/ereignisse/artikel/yesudas/yesudas_interview-eng.htm to http://www.indien-netzwerk.de/navigation/ereignisse/artikel/yesudas/yesudas_interview-eng.htm
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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Recently, an edit war has been underway regarding how many songs Yesudas has recorded. The contested numbers are 50,000 and 80,000. Let's see what has been reported in reliable sources on the matter. Yesudas is known to have started his career at the age of 21 in 1961.
*1987. Edmonton Journal. "Indian star performs Sunday". "...over 10,000 songs"
*2005: The Tribune (India). 'For me music is God.' "Nearly 25,000 songs..."
*2005: The Star. "Man with the golden voice ". "more than 30,000 songs".
*2006. The Des Moines Register. "Music helps build cultural bond". "...over 40,000 songs".
*2009. Midland Daily News. "Musical night at SVSU". "...over 40,000 songs".
*2010. The Hindu. "Music legend Yesudas turns 70". "...over 40,000 songs".
*2011: K.J. Yesudas website. "...more than 60,000 songs"
*2011: India Today. "Yesudas' singing career enters golden jubilee year". "...more than 50,000 songs".
*2013: Gulf Times. I am still a student, says legendary singer". "more than 50,000 songs".
*2013: Deccan Herald. "Singing maestro Yesudas turns 73". "more than 40,000 songs".
*2013: New Indian Express. "Golden years of singing". "more than 30,000 songs".
*2014: South China Morning Post. "Indian film singer Yesudas to perform in Hong Kong". "...more than 40,000 songs"
*2017: The Week. "Singer Yesudas among 62 chosen for Karnataka Rajyotsava Award". "over 30,000 songs".
*2020: Times of India. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishes legendary singer KJ Yesudas on his 80th birthday". "...more than 50,000 songs".
The big problem here is that the reported numbers jump around rather than build up gradually over time. The jumps make it difficult to believe the higher number. The huge jump to 60,000 in 2011, citing Yesudas' own website, is a colossal problem in credibility, demonstrated by the subsequent refusal by newspapers to print that number. Especially sobering is the 2017 number reported by The Week which racks the total back down to 30,000, ignoring much of the previous inflation. 
If we take the 1987 number of 10,000 and divide it over 26 years of work, we see 385 songs per year, or slightly more than one per day. If we take the 40,000 figure from 2010 and divide it by 49 years of work, we get 816 songs per year, 2.2 songs per day. These recording rates make it ridiculous to credit Yesudas with 80,000 songs in 59 years of work, because that would mean his rate of recording was greatly increased starting in 2010 to double his output by 2020. A man in his 70s, no less. 
All of this inflation makes me think that the actual songs are not being counted. Instead, numbers are being selected for their impact.
Even though the number of 50,000 is difficult to believe, it is easier than the silly claim of 80,000, and it was published a year ago by Times of India. I propose we hold the number to 50,000 and throw out any higher claims. Binksternet (talk) 06:59, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree, thank you for taking your time to research this. This edit war was going on for months by the IP range 117.213.*.* and as you stated above, most reliable sources don't mention the 80,000 claim. Times of India is not a very reliable source. The number can be changed if any new reliable sources report any higher numbers. SUN EYE 1 03:45, 8 January 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Perhaps we are seeing a case of circular reporting. The unusual number of 55,000 songs was inserted by an IP editor without a reference in September 2010. This was reduced to 40,000 in March 2011, but not before a few blogs copied the number from Wikipedia. The influence of Wikipedia is thus demonstrated. There were many times in the history of this biography that higher numbers were inserted and later removed, so it's likely that some of the newspaper articles were based on the false higher numbers. Binksternet (talk) 18:47, 8 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  The number of songs recorded 

message: A bunch of IPs from the southern part of India have been edit-warring in 2023 to insert the number 80,000. As discussed above, 50,000 is a more reasonable number, given that gross inflations have been published by sources that are just parroting the public relations blather coming from the Yesudas camp. If Yesudas had recorded 50,000 songs from 1961 to 2011, a span of 50 years, then we might expect something less than 1,000 songs per year after 2011, acknowledging the advancing age of Yesudas. In that case, the number might be as high as 60,000 by now, but not 80,000, which is absurd. Regarding sources saying 80,000: WP:CONTEXTMATTERS. We should not be repeating unreliable numbers. Binksternet (talk) 22:56, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: 2023 edit-warring