'The Nightingale of South India' S Janaki celebrates her 82nd birthday today; check out her tremendous journey here

Sistla Janaki alias S. Janaki, who is fondly called 'The Nightingale of South India', celebrates her 82nd birthday today. Although she is famous all over India, most of the people have a misconception that she is from Tamil Nadu. But, she is actually from Guntur of Andhra Pradesh. Although she was married at the age of 21, her husband has encouraged her passion and accompanied her during recordings. S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and composer Ilaiyaraaja are very close friends to her. Janaki's collaborations were mostly with P. B. Srinivas, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. J. Yesudas, and Dr Rajkumar. And all of their songs were chartbusters. She has recorded nearly 48,000 songs.

S Janaki's highest number of songs are in Kannada. She was awarded the Karnataka Rajyotsava award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Mysore for her contributions to the Kannada film and music. Her discography includes singing in English, Japanese, and German languages too. Although they were local-made films, they became popular. In 2013, she refused to accept Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award of the Government of India. Janaki said that she deserves Bharat Ratna the highest civilian award of the Government of India for her contributions to music. She pointed out that it is too little and had come "too late" and that South Indian artists were not given their due recognition. She also announced her retirement from singing for films and stage appearances in October 2016. But because of the number of requests from the fraternity, she made a comeback 2018 again.