Beauty Sharma Barua – Popular Folk Singer from Assam

Beauty Sharma Barua alias Beauty Barua is an Assamese folk singer, who also sings bhajans, ghazals and Hindustani classical music. She is trained in Kirana and Indore schools of Hindustani music. One of the most popular folk singers of present times, she has recorded songs with legendary artists of Assam like like Bhupen Hazarika, Jayanta Hazarika, Khagen Mahanta etc. She owns more than a thousand of recorded songs to her credit, and gramophone record album with Bhupen Hazarika was released by HMV Records in 1972. Her duets with Bhupen Hazarika such as Tumaloi Monot Pore and Tumi Joon Ne Xoon became trendsetters in the early 1970s. Her husband Dwijendra Mohan Sharma was a popular writer and lyricist.

Beauty Sharma Barua – During her younger days

Beauty Sharma Barua was born in 1951 in Dafalating Tea Estate, Golaghat, Upper Assam. As her father worked as a manager of the tea estate, her childhood was spent there where she took initial musical lessons right from age three. She was introduced to light folk music first and later she also learnt Hindustani music. When she was only 5 years old she started giving music lessons to the kids at tea estate, and she has been facilitated by Nehru at the age of 7. Her professional career began with AIR in the 1960s and she sang for Guwahati, Shillong, Jorhat and Dibrugarh radio stations.

Her career reached full swing in the 1970s, where she recorded numerous folk albums collaborating with great artists of the time, apart from her performances for All India Radio and Doordarshan. Most of her hit folk songs were born in the 1970s and 1980s. She has sung more than 300 songs written by her husband since 1970s. The couple blended Assamese Folk Music with light Classical, which became a trendsetter.

Beauty Sharma Barua – Some interesting and unknown facts

1. During her initial days in All India Radio in the 1960s, she gained popularity through the rendition of Ghazal, Bhajan and Classical songs. She turned a full-fledged Assamese folk singer in the 1970s with many popular and trendsetting songs to her credit.

2. In the 1980s she mostly sang light classical based songs.

3. Her husband Dwijendra Mohan Sharma was called the ‘Man with Melody in His Pen’ by The Daily Telegraph in 1976.

4. She has also produced and directed many musical shows for Doordarshan and AIR.

5. She started the reputed music school, Alakananda Sangeet Vidyalaya in the 1980s.

6. The songs of her album – Nao Koina released in 1999 are frequently played in Assamese weddings even after two decades.

7. She has translated and sung many Assamese songs to Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi and Kannada languages.

8. She is nicknamed as ‘The Melody Queen of Assam’ and ‘Beauty Baideu’.