Lata Mangeshkar, India’s music icon, dies after contracting COVID-19
Global News
India declared two days of national mourning and said Mangeshkar will be given a state funeral before being cremated in Mumbai on Sunday evening.
Lata Mangeshkar, a legendary Indian singer with a prolific, groundbreaking catalog and a voice recognized by a billion people in South Asia, has died. She was 92.
The iconic singer died Sunday morning of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai, her physician, Dr. Pratit Samdani, told reporters. She was hospitalized on Jan. 11 after contracting COVID-19. She was taken off the ventilator after her condition improved in late January but her health deteriorated on Saturday and was put back on life support.
India declared two days of national mourning and said Mangeshkar will be given a state funeral before being cremated in Mumbai on Sunday evening. The country’s flags will fly at half-staff.
Condolence messages poured in immediately after her death was announced.
“I am anguished beyond words,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet. “She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerize people.”
Over the course of nearly eight decades, Mangeshkar was a major presence as a playback singer, singing songs that were later lip-synced by actors in India’s lavish Bollywood musicals. She was also fondly revered as the “Melody Queen” and “Nightingale of India.”
Mangeshkar’s songs, always filled with emotion, were often sad and mostly dealt with unrequited love, but others involved national pride.