M S Subbulakshmi, alias M S, was perhaps the most well known Carnatic classical vocalist of India. She was born in a musical family on September 16th, 1916, in the temple city of
Madurai. M S became a distinguished vocalist under the guidance of eminent musicians such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She made her debut performance at the age of 17 and sang in various languages including
Hindi,
Gujarati,
Malayalam,
Kannada, and
Sanskrit. She even acted in a Hindi movie, Meera. She was honored with various national and international awards including
Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. She died in 2004.
