Google Doodle celebrates M S Subbulakshmi's birth anniversary

Google celebrates late Carnatic vocalist M S Subbulakshmi's 97th birth anniversary with a Doodle on Sep 16, 2013. The Doodle depicts the musician with a sitar, surrounded by musical instruments and wearing her trademark big red bindi.

M S Subbulakshmi, the first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna, belonged to a family of musicians from Madurai. She was 11 when she sang at her first public performance at a temple in Tiruchirapalli. At 13, she sang at the Madras Music Academy which broke its exacting tradition of inviting only well-known musicians for the young Subbulakshmi. By 17, she was performing solo concerts. Apart from Carnatic music, then largely a male preserve, M S Subbulakshmi also sang Hindustani classical, bhajans and devotional songs in many regional languages.

M S Subbulakshmi travelled across the world as India's cultural ambassador, singing at the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Royal Albert Hall in London among other prestigious locations. She also starred in some Tamil films, famously playing the role of poetess-saint Meera in both the Tamil and Hindi versions of a 1945 film.

M S Subbulakshmi also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and both the Padma Bhushan as well as the Padma Vibhushan, in addition to the Bharat Ratna which was awarded to her in 1998. She died on December 11, 2004.