Playback Singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Dies at 74

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam also known to as S. P. Balu or S. P. B. was not just an Indian musician or playback singer instead was also a music director, actor, dubbing artist, and film producer who worked mostly in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam films. He has sung over 40,000 songs in 16 Indian languages.

It's an unfortunate and great loss to the Indian music industry by his demise. Since the past month, his health condition seemed critical battling the novel coronavirus disease and had created a lot of panic in his fans all over the country. The 74-year-old legendary singer breathed his last on 25th September 2020 at 1;04 P.M. suffering a cardio-respiratory arrest. He was on maximal life support from the past 24 hours, says MGM Healthcare, Chennai. The film industry, music industry, political leaders, and his admirers mourn over his loss.

S P Balasubramaniam held the Guinness World Record for the highest number of songs by a singer. He has sung an average of 930 songs a year, approximately 3 songs a day. He dubbed for actors like Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan, Girish Karnad, etc. He had the unique talent of modulating his voice in many ways. He won six National Awards over four Indian languages. He was honored with two civilian awards by the Indian Government, Padma Shri in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2011.

SPB once recorded 21 songs in 12 hours, for Kannada composer Upendra Kumar. He also recorded 19 Tamil songs in a day and 16 Hindi songs in a day. He won 25 Nandi Awards in Tollywood for his versatility in singing. He is the icon of hard work.

At an early age, he had enrolled at JNTU College of Engineering but had to drop out due to Typhoid. Later, he joined as an Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers in Chennai. He had a great passion for singing and stunned everyone with his voice. His biggest singing idol was Mohammed Rafi.

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His journey in the field of music has been impeccable. Apart from being an iconic singer, he was a very humble and modest human being. He has taught all of us to live happily, work hard, and cherish life until the end.