The Legendary P Susheela turned 90 today

Veteran playback singer has more than 50 000 songs to her credit in all South Indian languages, and her prolific renditions have earned her a place in the Guinness Books of Records as well as the Asia Book of Records. She has won five national awards and numerous state awards from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Apart from her songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu, P Susheela has also sung in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya and Sanskrit.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, P Susheela learnt the Tamil language while making her debut as a singer in Tamil films, quickly rising to the number one spot and remaining active in the competitive industry for 6 decades.

Her rendition of Paal Polave from the film Uyarndha Manidhan saw her become the first Indian female singer to win a national award.

After being introduced to Tamil playback singing by A.V. Meiyappan, the founder of AVM Studios, she was given a personal Tamil tutor by Meiyappan who was convinced that the young Susheela would soon become a state sensation, little realizing then that her fame would spread far wider.

The young Susheela teamed up with TM Soundararajan in Tamil, Ghantasala in Telugu and PB Srinivas in Kannada to render some of the most memorable duets in Indian film history, forever changing the landscape of playback singing,

Although Illaiyaraja used S Janaki for more songs, he enjoyed a very special and close relationship with P Susheela, using her in a wide variety of song types.

P Susheela is in retirement but still makes occasional appearances in TV shows and live shows. Her health is now stable after her brief hospitalization last year.