Hyderabad: To describe Lata Mangeshkar as a singer or even a legendary singer is an understatement in India. It won’t be wrong to say that not a single day passes in our country when we do not hear any song of her’s or hum any of those beautiful numbers rendered by her. She is an emotion, a phenomenon, and an integral part of everyone’s life here. On the other hand, if I were to mention Aretha Franklin, most probably the hits on all digital search engines would go up instantly. Just for those who do not know, Aretha is an American singer who tops the list of the best 200 singers of all time by ‘Rolling Stone’.
Hence, when the magazine dedicated to music, put the doyenne of Indian playback singing at the 84th spot, reactions back home were bound to be angry. Moreover, the ranking comes ahead of Didi’s first death anniversary.
It’s difficult for the legions of fans to stomach that someone who has sung in over 36 languages and has received the highest civilian honor - Bharat Ratna, Dadasaheb Phalke, didn’t even make it to the top 10 in the list. The only solace one can find is that Celine Dion, who has sung the fabulous ‘My Heart Will Go On…’ from Titanic is completely left out of the list.
An angry Jagvir Singh tweeted, “Yankee’s world spans from the Great Lakes to Texas and North Carolina to California…. Lata Mangeshkar at84, not in top ten and Mohammad Rafi & Kishore Kumar not even in top 100 makes the list suspect.” (sic)
The honour that she is the only Indian singer to make the list too failed to cut ice with many. “Just to be clear: this is a list of the ‘maybe’ greatest 200 artists who mostly sing in English. Not to forget that the vast majority of the world does NOT listen to most people on this list. How about Mohd Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan…” (sic)
@KaamkiBaat said on Twitter, ‘Lata Mangeshkar at 84. Nusrat Fateh at 91. Whoever compiled the list didn’t research enough. Mostly Americans present. (sic) Another user goes by the twitter handle @Wildmooree tweeted, “Lata Mangeshkar was too low on the list.” (sic)
Not stopping at that, user @gabedsouza tweeted, “lata Mangeshkar isn’t in the top 10? But mariah carey is?” (sic) A miffed Aashharjani said, “Putting Lata Mangeshkar and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at 84 and 91 is nonsense.” (sic)
@amaan_c giving a more balanced view said, “I know these lists are subjective and designed to spark arguments, but I can’t stop laughing at the fact that Ariana Grande (43) is ahead of people like Umm Kulthum (61), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (91) or Lata Mangeshkar (84).
The magazine wrote, “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.”
Years back fans of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar were similarly angry when Maria Sharapova said that she didn’t know who Sachin was.
As Shakespeare had said, “a rose called by any other name is still a rose.” It doesn’t really matter if Lata Mangeshkar tops the list or place high or low in the ranking. For millions of her fans, she continues to live in their hearts. Ironically, ‘A rose is still a rose…” is one of the most popular songs of Aretha Franklin, the topper of the list.
