Asha Bhosle, the famed Indian playback singer and Bollywood legend, has died of cardiac arrest at age 92.
Bhosle passed away in Mumbai following a heart attack, her son Anand confirmed on Saturday night, per BBC.
After beginning her music career at age nine, she earned the Guinness Record for the most studio recordings in 2011.
The singer was twice Grammy nominated, and honored with India’s highest award in cinema – the Dadasaheb Phalke Award – in 2000.
Eight years later she became the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian honor.
Bhosle continued working into her elder years, launching the online talent show Asha Ki Asha in 2020 and using the slogan ‘Your Voice, My Choice.’
To mark her 90th birthday in September 2023, she performed at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.
Ahead of the performance, a statement shared on her YouTube channel read: ‘The legendary icon of Indian music has chosen the Coca-Cola Arena stage to celebrate her 90th birthday.
‘As part of her birthday celebration, Asha Bhosle will perform her superhit chart topping songs spanning a career of over 8 incredible decades.’
‘For me, music is my breath. I have spent my life with this thought. I have given a lot to music. I feel good I’ve come out of difficult times,’ the acclaimed artist told New Indian Express in 2023.
‘Many times I felt I would not be able to survive, but I did,’ she shared.
Anand told press on Sunday, ‘My mother passed away today. People can pay their last respects to her at 11 am tomorrow at Casa Grande, Lower Parel, where she lived.
‘Her last rites will be performed at 4pm tomorrow at Shivaji Park.’
Bhosle married Ganpatrao Bhosle when she was 16-years-old, and the union lasted from 1949-1960.
They shared three children – sons Hemant, Anand, and daughter Varsha, who died of suicide at age 56 in 2012.
She was married to her second husband, R. D. Burman, from 1980 until his death in 1994.
‘I was always attracted to Western music and knew that to make a space for myself in this industry, I needed to change the prevalent singing style of the age,’ Bhosle recalled at age 81.
At an event organized by the New Delhi-based Young Ficci Ladies Organization (YFLO), she added, ‘Eena Meene Deeka was the first song I sang in my own style.
‘Although the old generation criticized me a lot, I found many fans among the younger generation and that is how my career took off.’
