Susheela sings her way into Guinness Book

Hyderabad - The 80-year-old renowned singer has ensured her place in the Guinness Book for "recording 17,695 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in over 12 Indian languages". After verifying her record as on January 28, 2016, she has been honoured with a Guinness Certificate.

Legendary playback singer P Susheela, who has enthralled the listeners for over six decades with her mellifluous voice, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for singing the highest number of songs.
The 80-year-old renowned singer has ensured her place in the Guinness Book for "recording 17,695 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in over 12 Indian languages". After verifying her record as on January 28, 2016, she has been honoured with a Guinness Certificate.
"I thank all my directors, producers and composers who gave me the opportunities. This honour should go to them," the singer said in a rare appearance before the media. The veteran singer said that she had sung more than 40,000 songs in multiple languages but only 17,695 numbers had been taken in the records. The Guinness adjudicators had only considered songs that she had sung since 1960s.
"A group of 10 people who have formed Psusheela.org had sent my songs to the Guinness World Records and their efforts fetched me this honour," she said.
Susheela, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, made her foray into tinsel town in 1950 at a time when top singers like P Leela, Jikki, M L Vasantha Kumari were dominating the scene. Yet, Susheela made a mark with her distinct and mellifluous voice.
A Padma Bhushan awardee, Susheela has received five national awards for best playback singing in her career so far. The melody queen made her debut in 1951 with a Tamil film Petra Thai. There has been no looking back since then.
She received the first national award for best female playback singer in 1969 for the song Paal Polave from Sivaji Ganesan-starrer Tamil film Uyarndha Manithan.  She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2008.
Born into a music loving family, Susheela underwent formal classical music training at a very young age. The veteran music director Pendyala Nageswara Rao gave her break in the film industry in 1951.
The year 1955 saw Susheela raising to popularity with her back-to-back hit songs both in Tamil and Telugu films. Missamma, released in 1955, had hugely popular songs backed with strong carnatic classical essence.
Reflecting on the Guinness recognition, the veteran singer said that she views it as an acknowledgement of her hard work.
"There is a lot of hard work that has gone behind this achievement. Today, with so many television channels and newspapers, a talented singer can shine through quickly. But when I was singing, it was very slow and I had work my way up, step by step," she said.

• India