Gauhar Jaan

Gauhar Jaan was born Eileen Angelina Yeoward in Azamgarh on 26 June 1873. Her father, Robert William Yeoward, was of Armenian descent and worked as an engineer; her mother, Victoria Hemmings, had learnt Indian music and dance. The marriage broke down when Angelina was a child, and her mother moved to Benares with a Muslim companion, Khurshid. There mother and daughter converted to Islam and took new names: Victoria became Malka Jaan — remembered as "Badi Malka Jaan", a celebrated singer and poet — and Angelina became Gauhar.

In the 1880s the family settled in Calcutta. There Gauhar trained in khayal and lighter classical singing with Kale Khan of Patiala ("Kalu Ustad") and Ali Baksh Jarnail, in Kathak with Bindadin Maharaj, in dhrupad-dhamar with Srijanbai and in Bengali kirtan with Charan Das. She wrote ghazals under the pen name "Hamdam", and sang Rabindranath Tagore's songs. Her first public appearance, at the court of Darbhanga in the late 1880s, was highly acclaimed.

In November 1902 Fred Gaisberg of the Gramophone Company began recording in a makeshift studio in Calcutta, and Gauhar Jaan's khayal in Raga Jogiya was among the first discs issued in India. Her early records were labelled "First Dancing Girl, Calcutta", and she ended each one with the announcement "My name is Gauhar Jaan". Over the next eighteen years she recorded more than 600 songs — khayal, thumri, dadra, kajri, chaiti, bhajan and tarana — in Hindustani, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Arabic, Persian, Pashto, French and English. V. N. Bhatkhande counted her among the country's finest khayal singers. She also appeared in silent films produced by Madan Theatres.

In December 1911 she and Janki Bai of Allahabad sang a song composed for the coronation of George V at the Delhi Durbar, "Yeh jalsa taajposhi ka mubarak ho". Her later years were troubled by lawsuits, failed relationships and loss of fortune. In August 1928 the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, appointed her a palace musician, and she died in Mysore on 17 January 1930. Vikram Sampath's biography, "My Name is Gauhar Jaan!", appeared in 2010, and Google marked her 145th birthday with a Doodle in 2018.

Admired for a sweet, pure voice, very fast and accurate taans, and a wide range — from dhrupad and khayal to thumri, dadra and bhajans. She was among the first to adapt raga performance to the three-minute gramophone record.