S. Janaki

Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh.

She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in India.

She is referred to as 'Gaana Kogile' in Karnataka, and 'Gaana Kokila' in Telugu States and 'Isaikkuyil ' in Tamil Nadu She has recorded over 48,000 songs in films, albums, TV and Radio which includes solos, duets, chorus and title tracks in 17 languages including Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Odia, Tulu, Urdu, Punjabi, Badaga, Bengali, Konkani and also in foreign languages such as English, Japanese, German and Sinhala.

However the highest number of songs in her career were in Kannada followed by Malayalam.

Starting in 1957 with the Tamil film Vidhiyin Vilayattu, her career has spanned over six decades.

S. Janaki is widely acclaimed as a Queen of expressions in any languages with nativity.

She has won four National Film Awards and 33 different State Film Awards.

She started her career as a playback singer in the Tamil movie Vidhiyin Vilayattu in 1957.

Subsequently, she performed in the Telugu film M.L.A..

She sang film songs in 6 languages in her very first year.

Janaki sang her first Kannada song in 1957.

By the early 60s, she had started working with many prominent music composers.

S Janaki and Malayalam songs are inseparable, she sang her first Malayalam song back in 1957.

She practiced the correct accent and the nuances of the language which later made her one of the most sought after singers in the industry.

Janaki married V. Ramprasad in 1959.

He encouraged her career and accompanied her during most of her recordings.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s her duets with P. B. Srinivas, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. J. Yesudas, P. Jayachandran and Dr. Rajkumar topped the charts across all the South Indian languages.

She has sung in almost all the genres of songs and has performed live on stages in more than 5000 concerts across the globe.

She is the only singer to have sung 100 songs in four South Indian languages (Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada) in the very first year of her career.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s she remained the number one female playback singer in Kannada films.

Most of the music directors, from G. K. Venkatesh, Rajan–Nagendra to Hamsalekha, gave her most of their top compositions.

She has a record number of duets with P B Srinivas, S P Balasubrahmanyam and Dr Rajkumar.

He died in 1997 due to cardiac arrest.

Janakiamma's mother tongue is Telugu but she can fluently converse and write in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi also.

While in her twenties, Janaki moved to Chennai on the advice of her uncle, to work with Music composer R. Sudarsanam in AVM Studios as a singer.

She is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Mysore in Karnataka, the Kalaimamani award from Government of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Rajyotsava award from Government of Karnataka In 2013, she refused to accept Padma Bhushan, and pointed that it is too little and had come "too late" and that South Indian artists were not given their due recognition.

Widely acclaimed as one of the most versatile singers, her association with singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and composer Ilaiyaraaja is most talked about.

She was awarded the Karnataka Rajyotsava awarded in 2014.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Mysore for her contributions to Kannada film and music.

Some of her top hit solos in Kannada cinema are:

In October 2016, Janaki announced her retirement from singing for films and stage appearances.

She picked a Malayalam lullaby "Amma Poovinum" from 10 Kalpanakal as her swansong of her 60-year singing career and retired on 28 October 2017 with a concert held at Mysuru.

S Janaki's highest number of songs are in Kannada.

Her solos and duets, with P B Srinivas, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Dr. Rajkumar are considered evergreen.

However, under pressure from the film fraternity, she made a comeback for the Tamil film Pannadi in 2018.

Janaki was born on 23 April in Pallapatla, Repalle Taluka, in Guntur, Madras Presidency, British India (now in Andhra Pradesh).

Her father, Sreeramamurthy Sistla was an Ayurvedic doctor and teacher.

She spent most of her childhood in Sircilla where she got her first on stage performance opportunity at the age of nine.

She learnt the basics of music through a Nadaswaram vidwan Paidiswamy.

However she never pursued any formal training in the classical music.