The artist with 12,000 recordings
Asha Bhosle performs at the ‘75 Years of Asha’ concert at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images/Getty Images
Asha Bhosle, a Bollywood singer whose career spanned eight decades and who held the Guinness World Record as the most recorded artist in music history, died yesterday at the age of 92, prompting an international outpouring of condolences. By Bhosle’s count, she had made 12,000 recordings in 20 languages. How so many? In addition to releasing hundreds of albums and performing worldwide, she served as a “playback singer”—recording songs for actresses to lip-sync to on screen in Bollywood movies. But she was far from an anonymous cipher. Bhosle created a style all her own from traditional, cabaret, and other Western influences, though her ultimate gift was possessing a “timeless brilliance,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in a condolence post on social media. NPR described her voice as “flexible and powerful,” noting she kept most of her vocal range, even into her advanced years. During her career, Bhosle received India’s highest arts honor, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, and was nominated for two Grammys. |