Who was the singer known as the "Nightingale of India" who died in February 2022?

Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian singer and music composer who is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her contribution to Indian music industry in a career spanning seven decades gained her honorific titles such as the "Nightingale of India", "Voice of the Millennium" and "Queen of Melody."

Lata Mangeshkar’s voice was on the soundtrack to hundreds of Bollywood films and her extraordinary career spanned 73 years, almost the whole lifespan of post-independence India. She recorded songs in over thirty-six Indian languages and a few foreign languages, though primarily in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi.

She never married, saying that she had devoted her life to music. Her final recording was in 2019 when she released the song “Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti Ki” in tribute to the Indian army. Lata Mangeshkar received several of India’s highest accolades honouring her work, including in 1989 the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest award in the field of cinema, and in 2001 she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour. She was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 2009.