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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Chutney icon dies

by

20170102

Trib­utes poured in yes­ter­day, as the news of the death lo­cal Chut­ney singer, Anand Yankar­ran was an­nounced.

Yankar­ran, 51, was hailed by many as an icon in the lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try.

Ac­cord­ing to his wife, Vidya, Yankar­ran passed away at the Cou­va Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty around 6.45am yes­ter­day af­ter suf­fer­ing from a heart at­tack.

In an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, Vidya said Yankar­ran was in good spir­its min­utes be­fore his death. Yankar­ran had suf­fered from kid­ney fail­ure for a num­ber of years and was on dial­y­sis.

"We woke and I test­ed his blood pres­sure and­sug­ar (lev­els) and all the read­ings were good," she said. "We went back to lie down and a lit­tle while af­ter he start­ed to gasp for breath. I called the am­bu­lance and tried to re­sus­ci­tate him my­self, but when they took him to the hos­pi­tal he had passed away."

Vidya said she and Yankar­ran, who were to­geth­er for the past 17 years, en­joyed them­selves with friends on Sun­day as they cel­e­brat­ed the start of the New Year.

The two met at a Moth­er's Day con­cert in the US in 2000.

Of their ro­mance, she said: "It just hap­pened... I had known about his work be­fore and when we met things just fell in­to place."

They mar­ried and lived to­geth­er in the US for 14 years be­fore re­turn­ing to Trinidad.

Yankar­ran en­joyed a vi­brant mu­sic ca­reer while in the US and al­so per­formed in Mar­tinique, Guade­loupe, Guyana, Suri­name, Ja­maica, Eng­land and Cana­da.

The cou­ple set­tled in Ex­change De­vel­op­ment, Cou­va, on their re­turn, and Yankar­ran would record and re­lease his last Chut­ney hit 'Pak Pak' in 2013 and per­form in the 2014 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch.

Vidya said Yankar­ran had no plans to re­turn to the stage as he re­tired at age 50.

She de­scribed Yankar­ran as a very kind, lov­ing per­son. "He was soft-heart­ed loved to help peo­ple; any­thing he could do for some­one in need made him so hap­py."

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Chut­ney So­ca Monarch (CSM) pro­duc­er, George Singh said Yankar­ran's death is a dev­as­tat­ing blow to the lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try. He likened Yankar­ran's mu­si­cal con­tri­bu­tions to that of the "Fa­ther" of Chut­ney mu­sic Sun­dar Popo, who died in 2000 af­ter ail­ing with heart prob­lems and kid­ney fail­ure.

"He made an in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try and we are all deeply sad­dened by his death," Singh said.

ANAND'S LEGA­CY

Anand Yankar­ran shot to the spot­light in the lo­cal Chut­ney are­na in 1989 when he record­ed a jin­gle for the Stag beer called "Zind­abad Trini­ba­go."

He would lat­er record the jin­gle on his first al­bum 'Vic­to­ry.' The al­bum al­so in­clud­ed his break­away Chut­ney hit 'Nan­da Ba­ba' in 1989.

His oth­er hits in­clud­ed Jo Jo and Ran­ga Dal. His last Chut­ney re­lease was 'Pak Pak' in 2013.

Yankar­ran came from a mu­si­cal fam­i­ly, as his fa­ther was the late leg­endary In­di­an Clas­si­cal singer, Isaac Yankar­ran. His broth­er, Rakesh Yankar­ran is al­so a renowned lo­cal Chut­ney singer.

He was award­ed the Cha­co­nia Medal (Sil­ver) for long and mer­i­to­ri­ous ser­vice to Trinidad and To­ba­go in 1991.


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