1. Gurmeet Bawa was an Indian Punjabi language folk singer.
15 Facts About Gurmeet Bawa
1. 2.
Gurmeet Bawa was the first Punjabi female singer to sing on Indian public service broadcaster, Doordarshan.
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Gurmeet Bawa was awarded Padma Bhushan by Indian government in 2022.
4.
Gurmeet Bawa was born as Gurmeet Kaur in 1944, to father S Uttam Singh and mother Ram Kaur, in the village of Kothe in British Punjab.
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Gurmeet Bawa's mother died when she was two years old.
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Gurmeet Bawa sang with the Punjabi folk instruments, including alghoza, chimta, dholki and tumbi.
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Gurmeet Bawa represented India during the festival of India organised in the USSR in 1987 and Japan in 1988.
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Gurmeet Bawa performed at the Thailand Culture Center in Bangkok in 1988 and represented the country in the Bosra festival and the 25th Jashan-E-Azadi festival in Tripoli, Libya, in 1989.
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Gurmeet Bawa was known for her hek, or the ability to sing folk verses in a single breath and was known to have been able to do that for at least 45 seconds.
10.
Gurmeet Bawa was the first Punjabi female singer to sing on Indian public service broadcaster Doordarshan.
11.
Gurmeet Bawa's performances were accompanied by the alghoza, a wind instrument that was used by Punjabi folk singers.
12.
Gurmeet Bawa died in a hospital at Amritsar on 21 November 2021.
13.
Gurmeet Bawa was a recipient of the State Award by the Punjab government in 1991, Sangeet Puraskar by the Punjab Natak Akademi, the national Devi Ahillya Award by the Madhya Pradesh government in 2002, and the Shromani Gayika Award by the Punjabi language department in 2008.
14.
Gurmeet Bawa was the recipient of the Rashtrapati Puraskar by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
15.
In January 2022, Gurmeet Bawa was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan "for her distinguished contribution in the field of art".