SP Balasubrahmanyam the melodious voice that rendered classical compositions

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Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubramaniam, popularly known as S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, was one of India’s greatest playback singers with a voice that thrilled Indians across geographical locations. North or South, East or West, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam had fans all across as his voice cast a spell on the public.

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, born in 1946 died on September 25, 2020 at the age of 74. He was being treated for the novel coronavirus. A colossus in the film and music world with numerous hits in several languages spanning decades, Balasubrahmanyam though born a Telugu had made Tamil Nadu his home.

A down to earth personality despite his towering achievements in the music world which saw him winning the coveted Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam always remained grounded as an artiste. He worked with a generation of music composers, crooning a record 40,000 plus songs in a career spanning over 50 years.

An extraordinary singer himself, Balasubrahmanyam who was an admirer of Mohammed Rafi, made his marks with innumerable evergreen songs, evoking emotions including joy or romance among the public. The singing maestro once admitted in an interview two years ago that he was recording a song every day even after he had made his debut more than 50 years ago in 1966.

He first came into prominence with Ayiram Nilave Vaa sung in the Tamil film Adimaipen which starred by the legendary MGR in the year 1969. He never looked back and went from strength to strength thereafter making his presence in various film industries across India including Bollywood.

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam never dreamt to be a playback singer and all his aspirations while growing up was to become a gazetted rank engineer which could get him a salary of Rs.250 back in the 1960s. It was the legendary female playback singer S. Janaki who spotted his talent when he participated in a music competition while pursuing engineering in Madras. Janaki told him to give a try for the film industry where he could have a thriving career.

His first audition song was Nilave Ennidam Nerungadhe. It was rendered by veteran playback singer P. B. Srinivas, who used to write and give him multi-lingual verses in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, English and Urdu.

Balasubrahmanyam is married to Savithri and has two children, a daughter Pallavi and a son S. P. B. Charan, also a playback singer and film producer

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