Garh Ratn Narendra Singh Negi to be felicitated with prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award

This coveted award is being given to him for his unparalleled contribution to the Folk Songs of Uttarakhand category.

Eminent writer and art critic Diwan Singh Bajeli of Uttarakhand who is based out of Delhi has been chosen for this award in the category of Scholar.

Other prominent awardees from the different states of the country to be felicitated with this prestigious honour are Malini Awasthi for folk music from Uttar Pradesh, Ghazi Khan Barna for folk music from RAJASTHAN, Niranjan Raj Guru for folk music from Gujarat, Muhammed  Sadiq  Bhagat from Bandh Pathar, Jammu and Kashmir for Folk Theatre, Kota Sachidananda Shakti for Kathavachan, from Andhra Pradesh, Arjun Singh Dhruve for  folk dance from Madhya Pradesh, Somnath  Battu from Himachal Pradesh for folk music, Anupama Hoskere for string puppetry from Karnataka and Hem Chandra Goswami for mask making, Assam.

In addition to these awards, the Sangeet Natak Academy has also chosen eminent personalities from the fields of classical dance, Tabla vaadan and art and is bestowing the prestigious Sangeet Natak Fellowship Awards to eminent personalities viz.  Sonal Man Singh, Zaakir Hussain, Kota. Kalyanasundaram,  also known as Sangeet  Ratn Puruskaar.

The Sangeet Natak Academy and Fellowship Awards are conferred on 44 different eminent personalities in the field of Arts every year which includes different forms of music, dance, folk songs, theatre and traditional songs and music with the sole purpose of recognizing the regional and national talents and thus to encourage them to conserve our tradition, culture and heritage.

The Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi is popularly known as the National Academy for Music, Dance, and Drama in English.

It was established in the year 1952 after independence by the then education ministry inaugurated by the first Indian president Dr. Rajendra Prasad in a special ceremonial function at the Parliament house.

The basic aim and objective of the Academy are to promote music, theatre and dance in the country as well as in various states.

The selection body of the Academy consists of 48 members representing various states and cultures from the field of arts, theatre, writing, singing, drama and also includes academicians.

Conferment of this prestigious award by the President of India to the pride of Uttarakhand  (Gardh GAURAV) Narendra Singh Negi is a matter of immense pride and privilege for Uttarakhand and its people who adore and regard Negi as the flagbearer of Uttarakhand’s folk culture, songs and heritage.

Negi has since last 4 decades sung thousands of popular songs on various subjects. He is a lyricist and a melodious singer having won accolades all around.

His popularity amongst Uttarakhandies is massive, globally. How widely popular Uttarakhand’s eminent singer NARENDRA Singh Negi is can be gauged from the fact that when he was hospitalized for his cardiac surgery at Max hospital Haridwar, the number of followers, searching and praying for his well being superseded the prime minister’s following on Google search.

It must be remembered that Negi’s extremely popular and controversial song with political overtones titled NAUCHAMI NARENA was a super-duper hit. Millions of CDs of this song was sold globally that ultimately led to the fall of the ND Tiwari (Congress government) more than a decade ago. Even prestigious magazine India today had brought out a special story on the historic success of this song.

There had been repeated demands for considering his name for the prestigious Padma Shree award but the earlier state governments of Uttarakhand never exhibited that eagerness and wholeheartedness to honour this living legend of Uttarakhand.