Usha Uthup

Usha Uthup is a singer who has performed for more than fifty years, known for singing modern popular music in a Kanjeevaram sari with flowers in her hair. She was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2024 in the field of art, from West Bengal ^[1].

Fifty years of song

She was born on 8 November 1947 into a middle-class south Indian family ^[2]. Her career began in 1969 at a Chennai nightclub called Nine Gems ^[2]. She has since recorded more than a hundred albums and sings in 17 Indian and 8 foreign languages ^[2].

She presented Pop Time, a groundbreaking pop music show on Doordarshan, and has performed abroad for the ICCR across Europe, Africa and Asia ^[2]. She sang the women’s empowerment song “Aage Badho” in 15 languages for the Government of India, and recorded “The Peace Prayer” based on a poem by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ^[2]. She also sang at the canonisation of Mother Teresa at the Vatican in 2016 ^[2].

Giving back

Uthup has raised money for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata and worked with the Spastics Society and on behalf of people affected by leprosy ^[2]. She has worked with organisations on women’s empowerment, AIDS and child protection, and gathered more than a hundred artists to raise funds for victims of the tsunami and of Cyclone Aila ^[2].