M. S. Subbalakshmi or Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi was one of the classical gems produced by india. She was not only well admired but also hugely popular. Carnatic music was well represented by the magic of MS as she was popularly knonw as. Her achievements include Sangeetha Kalanidhi and Bharat Ratna among others. She was the first female singer to get these prestigious awards. Born on 16th September 1916 in the Madurai city of Tamil Nadu, M S Subbalakshmi took her initial training in the family only. She belonged to a family of musicians. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer gave her training in carnatic classical music whereas Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas was her teacher in Hindustani classical music.

MS started to give music performance from a very tender age of ten. At the age of seventeen she made an impressive debut at Madras Music Academy. Since then it remained a life of major achievements and uninterrupted excellence. Her talent can be gauged from the fact that she performed in various languages including Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kannada and not to forget her mother tongue Tamil. M S Subbalakshmi redefined classical music. She also dabbled in acting and performed in few movies. But she decided to devote herself to the sacred concept of classical music.

M S Subbulakshmi also performed her role of India’s cultural ambassador to the perfection. She performed in various concerts all over the world including UN General Assembly, Royal Albert Hall of London and Festival of India in Moscow. She won numerous awards likes of which include Kalidasa Samman Award, Padma Bhushan Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award and Padma Vibhushan Award. She left the mortal world on 11th December 2004 but her legacy will forever be etched in our minds.