Bengali singing legend Sandhya Mukherjee passes away: PM Modi, Mamata mourn the loss

Kolkata, Feb 15: Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee, who worked with leading music directors such as SD Burman, Naushad and Salil Chaudhury, passed away on Tuesday evening following a massive cardiac attack, said an official of the hospital where she was admitted.

Mukherjee was aged 90 and survived by a daughter.

She was in hospital since the last week of January due to ill health. She was put on vasopressor support earlier in the day as her blood pressure dropped. "She suffered a massive heart attack at around 7.30 PM following which she expired," the senior hospital official told PTI. The singer had tested positive for Covid-19 along with cardiac ailments, multi-organ dysfunction and fracture in the femur bone due to a fall.

Paying tributes to legendary Bengali semi-classical singer Sandhya Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said her demise has left the cultural world a lot poorer, and her melodious renditions will continue to enthral the coming generations.

Modi tweeted, "The passing away of Gitashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Ji leaves us all extremely saddened. Our cultural world is a lot poorer. Her melodious renditions will continue to enthral the coming generations. My thoughts are with her family and admirers in this sad hour. Om Shanti."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her condolence on Twitter. She tweeted, "Deeply saddened that Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, the queen of melody in Bengal, is no more. Her departure creates an eternal void in our world of music and in the hearts of millions of her followers here and in the diaspora.(1/3) [sic]"

The CM stated that she considered the legendary singer as her elder sister. Banerjee posted, "I used to look up to her as my elder sister and this is a grave personal loss to me. She used to be the moving spirit in our Sangeet Akademi and we had conferred upon her Bangabibhushan( 2011), Sangeet Mahasamman ( 2012) etc. (2/3) [sic]"

"We shall continue to pay our tributes to the departed genius.(3/3)," she tweeted.