Also popularly known as S.P.B or Balu, S.P Balasubrahmanyam was a legendary musical star of Indian movies whose smooth and vibrant voice was heard in more than 40,000 songs and 1,000 films lip-synced by actors. From cinema’s best-known songs in Bollywood, romantic to pop dance tracks, he sang in a multitude of regional languages and his best-known songs were in the languages of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English and Hindi. One of India's most renowned film singers, SPB began his career i... moreAlso popularly known as S.P.B or Balu, S.P Balasubrahmanyam was a legendary musical star of Indian movies whose smooth and vibrant voice was heard in more than 40,000 songs and 1,000 films lip-synced by actors. From cinema’s best-known songs in Bollywood, romantic to pop dance tracks, he sang in a multitude of regional languages and his best-known songs were in the languages of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English and Hindi. One of India's most renowned film singers, SPB began his career in Tamil and Telugu cinema in southern India - and became the first crossover singer who gained success in Bollywood. He sang for top composers of his time, including AR Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja. He won the National Film Award, one of the country’s most prestigious entertainment prizes, six times. He also received two of India’s top civilian honors: the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011.
Born in 1946 into a middle-class family from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, his father S. P. Sambamurthy, was a singer and stage actor; his mother, Sakunthalamma, was a homemaker. He moved to the big city of Madras (now called Chennai) as a young man and formed a band with his friends including Ilaiyaraaja, who would go on to become an acclaimed music composer, as the guitarist and others who played harmonica and percussion. He became a singer by accident when he was studying engineering in college when he won a singing competition, which opened doors for him in the Telugu-language film industry as a playback singer and had to drop out from his engineering studies in college. His first movie performance came in 1966 and the first major breakthrough in southern films came when he sang for Tamil superstar MG Ramachandran in a 1969 film Adimai Penn and broke into Bollywood in 1981 he sang for Ek Duuje Ke Liye (We Are Made For Each Other), a romantic tragedy that was one of the year's biggest hits and later collaborated often with the composer A.R. Rahman, who won two Oscars for his work on the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.
Balu often spoke of the inspiration he received from Mohammed Rafi, one of the most popular Indian singers in the 1950s and ’60s. Working in four southern Indian language film industries kept Balasubrahmanyam busy through the 1970s until the end of the last decade. He became the highest paid singer in southern India. Balu hopped from one music studio to another, recording as many as three new songs every day for more than two decades. At the height of his popularity he once spent 17 hours in a single day recording songs for different composers. In 1981, Balasubrahmanyam created a record by recording 21 new songs in the Kannada language from morning until night for a film music composer. When Bollywood demanded work of him, he would fly to Mumbai, record Hindi songs for films and return to Chennai in the evening.
His versatile voice lent itself to romantic and classical songs. He was also a flamboyant yodeller and sang bouncy dance tracks. At the height of Balasubrahmanyam’s fame, love letters, written in blood by his fans, would fill his mailbox. Unlike many Indian musicians who are usually teetotalers as they believe it ruins their singing voices; and many professional singers say they do not drink cold water nor eat ice-creams, Balasubrahmanyam never hid his smoking habits or his love for an iced drink. Mr. Balasubrahmanyam was also a music producer and character actor.
Balasubrahmanyam died after spending days in intensive care following a Covid-19 diagnosis. He was survived by his wife, Savitri Balasubrahmanyam; his daughter, Pallavi Balasubrahmanyam; his son, S.P.B. Charan; and two grandchildren.
