Singer Shankar Mahadevan honoured by top UK university for contribution to music and arts

Indian musician and singer Shankar Mahadevan has been honoured with a doctorate by Birmingham City University for his contribution to music and the arts. The honorary ceremony took place on June 23 at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

The 56-year-old singer shared his experience and thanked Birmingham City University for honouring him. Speaking to ANI, Mahadevan said, “This is truly special, I feel privileged, I feel honoured and this is just the result of a body of work that I have done. I would like to thank Birmingham City University and all the people who decided to confer this legendary, honourable doctorate on me. All I can say is that this is an occasion which tells that I need to work even harder, come up with even more beautiful songs and spread the joy of music which is Indian



classical music all around the world.”

He further said, “When an honorary doctorate like this is conferred upon an artist that you look up to then you’ve a goal to achieve. The youngster feels that their dreams are coming true in front of their eyes. They also start working hard and they would also like to achieve and would like to reach possibly where I reached today. I used to look up to maestros like John McLaughlin and Ustaad Zakir Hussain like they have come to confer this upon me. So it’s nice to set a kind example for the next generation.”

The ceremony was also attended by the noted guitarist, John McLaughlin and the tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. Taking to Instagram, the musician shared a picture with them and wrote, "Met the maestros !!! What a blessing."