The famous music legend, SP Balasubrahmanyam, 74, who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 back in August, died of cardio-respiratory arrest. The Guinness world record holder had under his name more than forty thousand songs over fifty years that included romantic hits to popular dance tracks. His charisma and versatility was not confined to only Hindi song numbers, but spanned over sixteen languages, including some of Indian Cinema’s best-known numbers.
After fighting for days in the intensive care unit, on Friday, the renowned singer died post which tributes started pouring in the social media from his fans and celebrities.
According to reports, Balasubrahmanyam was first admitted to hospital in the southern city of Chennai back in early August when he was tested positive for the coronavirus. Even though the singer tested negative in early September, he continued to receive life support treatment. According to a statement released by the hospital where he was admitted, the legend took his last breath as he died of a cardio-respiratory arrest.
Being affectionately known as SPB, the singer started his career in Tamil and Telugu cinema n Southern India, and soon became the first crossover singer who achieved fame in Bollywood.
As soon as the news of his demise hit the screen, social media flooded with memories and condolences as people recollected some of their most close and favorite songs sung by him.
Balasubrahmanyam has won several National Film Awards for being the Best Male Playback singer and has also received the civilian honors Padma Shri in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2011. He was indeed a legendary singer whose voice used to be pre-recorded for use in films to which the actors would lip-sync. He sang for some of the top composers of his time that included names like AR Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja.
He enjoyed a breakthrough career in Bollywood which started when his Bollywood film released in 1981 where he sand for Ek Duuje Ke Liye, a romantic tragedy, that went onto become one of the year’s biggest hits.
Despite his Southern accent, he soon became the singing sensation and thereafter the singing voice for Bollywood superstars such as Salman Khan.
Talking about his roots, Balasubrahmanyam was born in 1946 into a middle-class family from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, who broke several social norms despite his traditional way of upbringing.
He opposed the norm of learning only classical music, unlike his father who was a devotional singer. Rather, he created his path and moved to the big city of Madras, now Chennai. As a young man, he formed a band with his friends that included Ilaiyaraaja, who went onto becoming an acclaimed music composer, as the guitarist, and others who played harmonica, and percussion.
Along the path, Balasubrahmanyam dropped out from his engineering college to pursue singing and his talent was soon spotted at a music competition by the local film music composers.
In an interview, the most famous singer had stated that although he planned to be an engineer but destiny had something else in store for him and the music turned the course of his life. Soon after, he decided not to plan and let things unfold in their way.
In the Southern films, Balasubrahmanyam’s first breakthrough came when he sang for Tamil Superstar MG Ramachandran in a 1969 film named Adimai Penn.
Followed to which he told an interviewer that singing for a superstar like him reportedly changed the way, Tamil film world perceived him. Throughout the 1970s and until the end of the last decade, Balasubrahmanyam was busy working for four southern Indian language film industries.
He hopped from one music studio to the other and recorded as many as three songs per day for more than two decades.
At the time when Balasubrahmanyam reached the height of his popularity, he once spent seventeen hours in a single day recording songs for different composers.
Back in 1981, the singer created a record by recording twenty-one new songs in the Kannada language from morning until night for a film music composer.
Soon when Bollywood demanded his work, the legend would fly to Mumbai in the morning, record Hindi songs for films, and return to Chennai in the evening.
In 1992, the singing superstar recorded some memorable romantic songs for the Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman for the blockbuster hit, Roja.
His versatility and singing talent lent its grace to both romantic and classical songs. Added to this, he was also a flamboyant storyteller and sang to bouncy dance tracks as well.
Critic VAK Ranga Rao had once said that Balasubrahmanyam is a phenomenon whose fine voice always sings true. He also said that the singer holds a deep awareness and has a basic feel for the aesthetics of film music. Moreover, adding to all of this is his raging enthusiasm, respect for the art, which is also his profession, and an open mind that makes him so different.
Being a charismatic figure, Balasubrahmanyam received love letters written in blood by his fans. His mailbox would fill with such letters and this happened when the legend was at the height of his fame.
Most commonly the Indian musicians do not smoke as they believe it ruins their singing voices, and many professional singers do not even drink cold water or eat ice-cream for that matter. But Balasubrahmanyam was never seen hiding his smoking habits or his love for an iced drink.
There was a particular instance when he had asked for a chilled soft drink before stepping into the recording booth, which had caused quite a stir in the studio.
Once during an interview, Balasubrahmanyam had said that he would stop singing the day he feels he cannot.
SP Balasubrahmanyam’s demise has created a void in the Indian music industry forever as the beloved playback singer shall now only live on his songs.
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