Lata Mangeshkar (born 28 September 1929) is an Indian
playback singer, and occasional music-composer. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over seven decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand
Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in
Marathi and
Hindi. She is the elder sister of singers
Asha Bhosle,
Hridaynath Mangeshkar,
Usha Mangeshkar and
Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist, after
M. S. Subbulakshmi, to have ever been awarded the
Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.