Legendary playback singer and songwriter, actor and producer, SP Balasubrahmanyam passed away in a Chennai hospital on September 25, 2020, after an energetic fight against the COVID-19 disease. The singer-songwriter who dominated the film industries of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Mumbai (Bollywood) for more than five decades tested positive on August 5, 2020 and has been in hospital ever since. Although the artist was fine in the initial stage, serious complications appeared later and he was put on the ventilator and ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) support. She tested negative for COVID-19 on September 7, 2020, but as her breathing problems persisted, she continued on the ventilator and ECMO support. His condition became extremely critical in the last two days, and eventually the music legend had to give in. He was 74 years old.
Born into a Telugu family in Tamil Nadu in 1946 and raised primarily in Andhra Pradesh, SP Balasubrahmanyam, better known as ‘SPB’ or ‘Balu’, showed his keen interest in music from an early age and over the years , began singing in various local competitions winning awards all the time. He made his debut as a playback singer for a film in Telugu in 1966, where the score was done by his musical mentor SP Kodandopani. Within days she made her debut as a Kannada replay singer and dabbled in Tamil films in 1969, and then the Malayalam film industry in the same year. SPB’s illustrious and spectacular musical journey began: he became the voice of legendary South Indian actors such as Gemini Ganesan, MG Ramchandran (MGR), NT Rama Rao (NTR), Shivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan for whom he also sang. for hindi movies. , Rajnikant and then to Bollywood superheroes, from Salman Khan to Shahrukh Khan.
Balasubrahmanyam achieved international fame singing for the unforgettable Telugu film Sankarabharanam in 1980, directed by K Vishwanath. Balu was never trained in classical music, particularly in the Carnatic style; but nonetheless, he made history by adapting his singing aesthetic to suit the character of a classical music protagonist in the film. SPB won his first national award as the best reproducing male singer in this film. The following year, namely 1981, he took the Hindi film industry, Bollywood, by storm: singing melodious songs for Kamal Hassan in the blockbuster film ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye‘, a remake of an original Telugu film, for which he won his second national award for best Hindi male reproducing singer. And SPB became the most sought-after voice in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films with musical directors ranging from the legendary Ilaiyaraaja, S Janaki, KV Mahadevan to AR Rahman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, RD Burman, Ram -Laxman, Anand-Milind and others.
In a career spanning more than five decades, SPB sang more than 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages. He had won 6 national awards for his reproduction singing in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi; won 6 Filmfare Awards for the South Zone; he was conferred Padma shri in 2001 and Padma bhushan in 2011; was honored with ‘Indian Film Personality of the Year’ in 2016; and numerous other state awards from its four southern states. For a personality of his stature, the list of national awards appeared to be smaller in numbers, which is largely due to the fact that the ‘national’ or Bollywood Hindi film industry enjoyed much greater reach, visibility, popularity and patronage. across the country and thus many of South India’s great legendaries had to be content primarily with state recognition.
SP Balasubrahmanyam is perhaps the only Indian reproduction singer who has enjoyed a five-decade fame without a plateau with followers all over India and the world, regardless of language barriers. His greatness was in his lusciously melodious yet manly voice, his immense dexterity of natural modulations, his intrinsic ability to act with the required emotions, and his innate talent for tailoring his singing style as suited to movie characters / heroes through. Five major and many other languages, as the legendary Mohammad Rafi did naturally from the 1940s until his demise in 1980. By the way, Rafi had been his model singer and a true guru throughout his career, always loving the Hindi movie song icon. Perhaps for this reason, he thrived in Bollywood for much longer than other singers from the southern region such as Yesudas and Vani Jayram. Of course, he too had a 15-year hiatus from Bollywood, returning only in 2013 to sing for Shahrukh Khan in the smash hit movie. Chennai express. However, the great artist continued to sing-compose in southern languages until his last days.
We salute the great musician and mourn his tragic demise, with the entire nation as messages of condolence have been pouring in from film personalities, politicians, leaders, stalwarts in all professional fields and his millions of fans. Apart from his singing, Balu has always been loved by all for his simplicity, his gracious interactions with the public, his communication through the media, and his bright jovial nature.