Legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam dies at 74 in Chennai

Legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam aka SPB breathed his last on September 25 due to illness. He was 74. In the first week of August, SP Balasubrahmanyam, fondly called SPB, tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Since it was a mild case of Covid-19, SPB was asked to quarantine himself at home. He chose to get himself hospitalised as his family members were concerned. His condition deteriorated on September 23 and he was deemed extremely critical.

His son, SP Charan, addressed the media and said, "My dad breathed his last at 1:04 pm. Thank you everyone for your prayers. My dad will live long till his fans remember him."

Director Venkat Prabhu, who is close to SP Charan and his family took to Twitter to share the sad news with the world. SP Balasubrahmanyam breathed his last at 1:04 PM on September 25.

Here's the tweet:

#RIPSPB 1:04pm — venkat prabhu (@vp_offl) September 25, 2020

SPB’s body likely to be taken from the hospital at 4pm. His family is trying to seek permission for public homage at his Chennai residence. His body will be laid to rest at his farm house in Tamaraipakkam in the outskirts of Chennai. SP Balasubrahmanyam is survived by wife Savitri and his two children - daughter Pallavi and son SP Charan. His last rites will be performed by his son, Charan. After testing positive for the novel coronavirus, SPB was in good condition till August 13. His condition worsened that night after which he was put on ventilator. For over a month, he was on ECMO and ventilator support. On September 13, he tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

SP Balasubrahmanyam's untimely demise has come as a huge shock for the South film industry. Celebrities and fans are shocked to know that the singer with an infectious smile is no more. They have been taking to social media to share their grief.

SPB was a multi-talented person. He had worked as a singer, actor, music director, dubbing artist and film producer in multiple languages. In his career spanning five decades, he had recorded over 40,000 songs in several languages.

In his long career, he had won several awards and accolades for his mellifluous voice. In fact, he had won the Guinness World Record for recording the highest number of songs. He had been conferred Nation Award for Best Male Playback Singer six times and had bagged Nandi Awards in Telugu cinema 25 times.

SPB was also bestowed with Padma Shri Award in 2001 and Padma Bhushan in 2011.

(With inputs from Akshaya Nath)

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