'Magical songbird.' Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham pays tribute to Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar’s absence is being felt by the creative community in an immense way. The legendary singer passed away on Sunday, and the tributes to her unparalleled talent and extraordinary voice are still pouring in. The latest person to pen a heartfelt homage to the late singer is British actress, Hannah Waddingham, who is best known for her Emmy Award-winning role in the American sports comedy, ‘Ted Lasso’.

Praying for the late singer’s departed soul, Waddingham recently took to Twitter and wrote, “Rest in peace #LataMangeshkar. The original, magical, beautiful Bollywood songbird." She completed the tweet with a heart and prayer hands emojis.


Waddingham’s desi fans are obviously taking note of the bittersweet moment, and are pleasantly surprised that the British actress was aware of Mangeshkar’s exhaustive oeuvre of work.



However, it should be less surprising to those familiar with Waddingham’s stage and music background. The 47-year-old actress, who has finally arrived in the TV’s big leagues with her roles in ‘Sex Education’, and guest appearance in ‘Game of Thrones’, is also a singer. She reportedly has a four-octave vocal range, despite never receiving any formal training in music.

Waddingham, in fact, has music in her blood, and comes from a family of opera singers. Her grandparents were musicians, and her mother joined the chorus of the English National Opera when Waddingham was only eight, and had worked there for 27 years.

Waddingham studied at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and has been part of several musicals. Apart from that, she also had a single released back in 2000 called ‘Our Kind of Love’.

However, if you want proof of her singing talents, and love check out her music, you need not look further than ‘Ted Lasso’. Revisit her brilliant karaoke performance of ‘Let It Go’ in Season 1, or ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ in Season 2's holiday episode of the series, and you would know what we are talking about.

Lata Mangeshkar (92), who enthralled millions with her divine voice for almost eight decades, died Sunday at a Mumbai hospital following multi-organ failure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among those who paid their last respects to the music icon at Shivaji Park Sunday evening.