Lata Mangeshkar has been featured at the 84th spot in Rolling Stone’s 200 Best Singers of All Time list.
The list also includes the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and South Korean singer-songwriter Lee Ji-eun, better known by her stage name IU and BTS’ Jungkook. However, My Heart Will Go On singer Celine Dion has been excluded from the list.
“The crystalline, eternally girlish voice of ‘the Melody Queen; is a cornerstone of Indian pop music, with a global influence spread via Bollywood films, whose golden era she defined. Lata was the empress of playback singers, the vocal magicians who perform songs for actors to lip-sync in lavish movie musicals, recording over 7,000 such songs, by some estimates,” wrote Rolling Stone about Lata.
“Even Asha Bhosle, her younger sister and only true peer among playbackers, considered ‘Lata Didi’ her ‘favorite singer; — and if Bhosle was more versatile and prolific, her elder sister remained the gold standard for the piercing brilliance of her tone. The Lata Mangeshkar songbook has informed songs far beyond Bollywood, from Britney Spears’s Toxic (which sampled the 1981 Lata duet Tere Mere Beech Mein) to electronic jams by Madlib and Four Tet (who made a section of Lata’s exquisite Main Teri Chhoti Bahna Hoon the centerpiece of his 2015 Morning Side).”
Born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Lata is the recipient of the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna for her exceptional contribution to the field of music. Her name also appeared in Guinness World Record as the most-recorded artist between 1948 and 1987. Her last recorded song was Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti ki, paying tribute to the Indian Army for their bravery.
Lata passed away in February 2022 at the age of 92. She left behind an unmatched legacy built over her seven-decade-long career.
The top 20 artists in Rolling Stone’s 200 Best Singers of All Time list are — Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Sam Cooke, Billie Holiday, Mariah Carey, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Otis Redding, Al Green, Little Richard, John Lennon, Patsy Cline, Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Prince, Elvis Presley, Celia Cruz, Frank Sinatra and Marvin Gaye.
Some of the other famous singers on the list include Adele, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Ozzy Osbourne and Billie Eilish.
