Singer and actor SP Balasubrahmanyam breathed his last at the MGM hospital in Chennai. The 74 year old singer was being treated for multiple health complications after he got himself admitted following coronavirus infection.

The hospital had released a health bulletin last night confirming the news that the singer's health had turned worse and that he was on maximal life support. SP Balasubrahmanyam is survived by his wife Savitri and children Pallavi Subrahmanyam and SP Charan




Is there a male singer who has created a Guinness world record for recording a maximum number of songs in his lifetime? Do you know any singer who has been a voice for legendary actors of Indian cinema? Can you take a name of one singer who has won the National award in four different Indian languages? Well, there has to be only one name and that is Mr. Shripathi Pandithadradhyula Balasubramanyam or simply put, the great S.P.B. We have grown up listening to his songs and today, we are here with a few interesting things about S P Balasubramaniam. Come, let’s take a read.

SP Balasubramanyam is a gifted singer who has got that power of mesmerizing the audience with his magical voice texture. With an incredible versatility he puts in his rendition, SPB was the first choice of every music director in 80s, 90s and early 2000. From being a voice to greats like Dr.Vishnuvardhan (Kannada), Kamal Hassan (Tamil), Rajnikanth (Tamil), Salman Khan (Hindi), Mohan Lal (Malayalam) to have performed like an actor on the mic, the journey of SPB will remain as a remarkable one in the history of Indian music.


1. He enrolled in JNTU, Anantapur to become an engineer, but had to drop out because of Thyphoid. He later joined Associate Member of Institution of Engineers, Chennai.

With a passion in music, he used to perform at various music shows and competitions and one of the competition which he won, was judged by S.P.Kodandapani and Ghantasala, where finally Kodandapani became his mentor.



2.S.P.B used to head a music troupe, with Anirutta on harmonium, his friend and later Maestro Ilayaraja on guitars and percussion, Ilayaraja’s brothers Bhaskar on percussions, and Gangai Amaran on guitars. This association with Ilayaraja continued for a long time as he turned into maverick composer later on.

S.P.B got launched in film music in December 1966 with Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna under his mentor Kodandapani. Soon then he debuted into Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam respectively.


3. He has a unique record of singing most number of songs in a day. That is 21 songs in the span of 12 hours for Kannada composer Upendra Kumar, 19 songs a day in Tamil and 16 songs a day in Hindi. He said he used to sing around 15 songs for Anand Milind in Hindi and then come back to Chennai by night.

With an average of 930 songs a year or 2.5 songs a day, S.P.B has sung around 40,000 songs, which is a Guinness world record probably unbeatable by anyone in the world ever. He has sung in various Indian languages including a tribal language Gond. He has sung over 200 film and private albums.



4. He has won six national awards, most by any singer over four languages. Three in Telugu for Sagara Sangamam, Rudraveena and Shankarabharanam, One in Hindi for Ek Duje Ke Liye, One in Tamil for Minsara Kanavu and One in Kannada for Sangeetha Sagara Ganagoyi Panchakshara Gavai.

Though not classically training, he has sung outstandingly for K.Viswanath’s Shankarabharanam under K.V.Mahadevan. That was one of the greatest soundtracks ever recorded in Telugu music.


6. S.P.B has acted in 72 films in three different languages, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. He is probably the only Indian singer to have acted in so many films. He can also speak these three languages fluently, though his mother tongue is Telugu.

SPB has also given voice for various artists like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan, Bhagyaraj, Mohan, Girish Karnad, Gemini Ganesh, Nagesh, Karthik, Raghuvaran, Vinodkumar etc. SP.Balasubramanyam was the default dubbing artist for Kamal Hasan’s Telugu movies, dubbed from Tamil. For the movie Dasavatharam, he dubbed for 7 characters including an Old lady character. It’s difficult to find out if SPB has really dubbed Kamal or if Kamal is acting on SPB’s voice.


7. Besides playback singing, Balasubramaniam is also the chairman of Kodandapani Audio Labs, Chennai.

He has won six National Film Awards across four languages, as well as a Bollywood Filmfare Award, five Filmfare Awards South, numerous state awards from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and twenty five Nandi Awards for his works towards Telugu cinema. He received civilian awards such as Padmashri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the government of India. In 2016, he was honored with the inaugural Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the year at the 47th International Film Festival of India.


8. He is a famous TV personality as well. Having acted in two Tamil and a Telugu serial, S.P.B has also hosted number of music reality shows like ‘Padalanivundhi’ and the very famous ‘paadutha Theeyaga’ which introduced a plethora of musicians to music industry. He has also accepted the honor of being a judge in many famous shows in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

He is just not a celebrity, he has a proven human side to him. His humility is unsurpassed, the way he conducts himself is unblemished. He has always been there to stand-up and be counted to the thousands and thousands of charity concerts or fund-raising events when it comes to social service


the news of SPB's death has left millions of his fans devastated. Consoldences have flooded social media after news of his demise got out.

A multi-disciplinary team, comprising specialists from internal medicine, pulmonology and infectious diseases among others, took care of him.

Also, the team actively collaborated with international experts from reputed centres in the United States and the United Kingdom that saw a slew of COVID-19 patients requiring ECMO support.

On September 3, the hospital had said that he was stable, conscious, responsive and continued to show clinical progress and days later it said his condition warranted an extended stay in the ICU requiring ECMO and ventilator support.

A DARK DAY FOR ALL

RIP S.P. BALU SIR