M.S. Subbulakshmi became the first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna in which year?

Explanation

The Carnatic singer M.S. Subbulakshmi received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1998. She was the first musician ever to receive this honour, which brought great recognition to Indian classical music.

Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2004) was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Her mother, Shanmukhavadivu, was a veena player, and Subbulakshmi gave her first public performance as a child. She trained in Carnatic music under Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and also learnt Hindustani music. She became famous for her pure, divine voice and her deeply devotional style. She acted in a few Tamil films, the most famous being "Meera" (1945), which was also made in Hindi and made her known across India. Her recordings of the "Venkatesa Suprabhatam", the "Vishnu Sahasranamam" and the "Bhaja Govindam" are played in homes and temples across South India every morning. In 1966, she sang at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Mahatma Gandhi admired her singing of his favourite bhajan "Hari Tum Haro", and Jawaharlal Nehru called her the "Queen of Song". She was married to T. Sadasivam, a freedom fighter and journalist, who managed her career.

She received the Padma Bhushan (1954), the Sangita Kalanidhi (1968), the first given to a woman, the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1974), the first to an Indian musician, the Padma Vibhushan (1975) and the Bharat Ratna (1998).

After her, other musicians to receive the Bharat Ratna include Ravi Shankar (1999), Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan (2001), Bhimsen Joshi (2009) and Bhupen Hazarika (2019).

Why not the other options?

• ✗1954 is the year she received the Padma Bhushan; it is also the year the Bharat Ratna was first given.
• ✗1975 is the year she received the Padma Vibhushan.
• ✗2001 is the year Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan received the Bharat Ratna.