S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Indian playback singer Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, credited and also known as S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. P. B. or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, music director, actor, dubbing artist, and film producer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam films.
Balasubrahmanyam has won six National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer for his works in four different languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi; 25 Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards for his work in Telugu cinema; and numerous other state awards from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In addition, he won the Filmfare Award, and six Filmfare Awards South. According to some sources, he held the Guinness World Record for recording the highest number of songs by a singer with over 40,000 songs.[10][11][12][13] He recorded 21 songs in Kannada for the composer Upendra Kumar in Bengaluru from 9 am to 9 pm on 8 February 1981. In addition, he recorded 19 songs in Tamil and 16 songs in Hindi in a day, which has also been called a record.[In 2012, he received the state NTR National Award for his contributions to Indian cinema. In 2016, he was honoured with the Silver Peacock Medal as Indian Film Personality of the Year. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri (2001), Padma Bhushan (2011) and Padma Vibhushan (Posthumously) (2021) from the Government of India.
Balasubrahmanyam was born in Nellore, Madras Presidency (present-day Andhra Pradesh) into a Telugu Brahmin family. His father, S. P. Sambamurthy, was a Harikatha artist who also acted in plays. He had two brothers and five sisters, including singer S. P. Sailaja. His son S. P. Charan is also a popular South Indian singer, actor and producer.
Balasubrahmanyam developed an interest in music at an early age, studied musical notations, and learned music. He enrolled at the JNTU College of Engineering Anantapur, but discontinued his studies early due to typhoid Balasubrahmanyam continued to pursue music and won awards at singing competitions. In 1964, he won the first prize in a music competition for amateur singers organized by the Madras-based Telugu Cultural Organization. Often visiting music composers seeking opportunities, 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. 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.
Balasubrahmanyam 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.
In 1992, he recorded some memorable romantic numbers for Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman for the blockbuster hit, Roja.
His versatile voice lent itself to romantic and classical songs. He was also a flamboyant yodeller and sang bouncy dance tracks.From romantic hits to popular dance tracks, he sang some of Indian cinema’s best-known numbers, spanning 16 languages.
Balasubrahmanyam died on Friday after spending days in intensive care following a Covid-19 diagnosis.

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Date of Birth: 04 Jun 1946
Birth Place: Nellore
Proffession: Indian playback singer Panditaradhyula
Nationality: Indian
Death: 25 September 2020, MGM Healthcare, Chenna