S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Biography 
S. P. Balasubramanyam is an Indian playback singer, music director and an actor. He is called as SPB. He has sung over 40,000 songs and has received National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer six times. He has won National Film Awards for four languages. He has also won Filmfare Award and many state awards from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. He received Padma Shri award in 2001 and Padma Bhushan award in 2011 from the Government of India.
His full name is Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubramanyam and was born on 4th June 1946. His father is S. P. Sambamurthy, Harikatha artist who had acted in plays. He has two brothers and five sisters. He married Savithri and has two children, Pallavi and S. P. B. Charan who is also a playback singer. From his early years he showed strong inclination towards music. His father wanted to make him an engineer and joined him at JNTU College of Engineering at Anantapur. But he discontinued the course in the middle due to typhoid fever.
His debut song was Nilave Ennidam Nerungadhe. He organized a music troupe composed of Anirutta, Ilayaraja, Baskar, Gangai Amaran. He was selected as the best singer in the singing talent competition judged by S. P. Kondapani. His song Aayiram Nilave Vaa for the film Adimai Penn made him very popular. He became popular in Malayalam through his song Ee Kadalum Marukadalum. He got his first National Film Award for the film Shankarabaranam and then for the film Ek Duje Ke Liye in Hindi.
He had worked with various composers like Vidhyasagar, M. M. Keeravani, S. A. Rajkumar, M. S. Viswanathan, K. V. Mahadevan, Ilayaraja, Hamsalekha and A. R. Rahman and his association with A. R. Rahman proved to be very successful. He worked with him for many films like Roja, Pudhiya Mugam, Kizhakku Cheemaiyile, Duet and Minsara Kanavu. His song Thanga Thaamarai in Minsara Kanavu fetched him his last National Film Award.
On 25 September 2020, he died in Chennai from post COVID-19 complications.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 28, 2020
