Usha Iyer

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Usha Iyer, better known as Usha Uthup, is an Indian singer with a deep contralto voice who sings in many genres and languages. She was born in 1947 in Mumbai into a Tamil family. At school she was thrown out of music class because her voice did not fit in, but her teacher saw that she was musical and gave her castanets and a triangle. At home she heard Western classical music, Hindustani and Carnatic music, and listened to Radio Ceylon. At the age of nine she sang in public for the first time, on Radio Ceylon's Ovaltine Music Hour.

Music and breakthrough

In 1969 she began her career in a nightclub in Chennai. After that she sang in clubs in Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi. In Delhi a film crew working with Dev Anand asked her for playback singing. She made her Bollywood debut with Bombay Talkie (1970) and also sang in Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), where she sang a line in English. In 1968 she recorded covers of pop songs, such as Jambalaya and Scotch and Soda, which sold well. In Nairobi she became so popular that President Jomo Kenyatta gave her the honorary title of citizen of Kenya. There she sang Malaika with Fadhili Williams.

Influence

In the 1970s and 1980s she sang for composers such as R. D. Burman and Bappi Lahiri and made songs such as Mehbooba Mehbooba and Dum Maro Dum popular in her own way. In this way she built up a kind of Indian pop of her own, a blend of Western and Indian music. In 2011 she received the Padma Shri and in 2024 the Padma Bhushan.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 6^NL Reader