The legendary playback Singer Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam aka SPB who made his mark in the film industry breathed his last on Friday afternoon at MGM Healthcare Hospitals in Chennai. His final rites will be helmed today with state honor. Nandamuri Balakrishna condoled SP Balasubrahmanyam’ death and remembered his close bonding with the veteran singer.
Nandamuri Balakrishna took to his Twitter and said, “Your (SP Balasubrahmanyam) voice is immortal, your song is immortal. The Songs SPB sang for me are your gifts. The singer will stay with me in the form of songs.”
The official statement from MGM Hospital in Chennai said that despite maximal life support measures, the singer SP Balu died of a cardio-respiratory arrest.
SPB had been admitted at MGM Healthcare since 5th August after he tested positive for covid-19.
Besides lending his voice over 40,000 songs in different (16) languages, the playback singer SP Balu had lent his voice to top stars and to Ben Kingsley in the Telugu version of ‘Gandhi’. SP Balasubrahmanyam was born in an orthodox Telugu Brahmin family on 4th June, 1946, to Sambammurthy and Sakuntalamma.
After hearing the news of SPD’ demise, music composer AR Rahman, singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle mourned his loss. India’ PM Narendra Modi said with the demise of SPB, our cultural world is a lot poorer.