Malini Awasthi, one of the foremost exponents of the folk music of North India, was born in Kannauj in 1967 and raised in the towns of Uttar Pradesh whose speech and song she would later carry to the concert stage. She received her training in Hindustani classical music at the Bhatkhande Music Institute, Lucknow, and became a disciple of the celebrated Vidushi Girija Devi, through whom she received the musical sanskars of the Banaras tradition.

Her singing holds together the discipline of classical training and the ease of lived folk practice. The musical wealth of Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj and Bundeli comes to her stage with its own speech and its own emotional ground, in forms such as kajri, chaiti, sohar, dadra, jhoola, holi and nirgun. In these songs the gaiety of the seasons, the dignity of domestic rites, the inner life of women and the collective memory of a people find their voice together.

Her cultural work extends well beyond performance. As founder secretary of Sonchiraiya, established in 2011, she has worked for the preservation of folk and tribal arts, giving traditional artists a platform and carrying folk knowledge forward through workshops and cultural programmes.

For her contribution to music the Government of India conferred upon her the Padma Shri in 2016. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2018.

Her enduring significance lies in restoring dignity to the folk song and to all that it holds — language, feeling and the lived experience of generations, passed from voice to voice.