Legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, who had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Chennai, passed away today after a long battle with the coronavirus.
On Aug 5, SPB announced through a video recording, which he posted on his Facebook page, that he had tested positive for COVID-19, and had gotten admitted in a hospital. His health deteriorated in the last 24 hours and he passed away
S.P.B was born as Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam at Konetammapeta, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh and has two brothers and five sisters, including singer S.P. Sailaja.
Here are a few interesting facts about SPB
SPB was enrolled at JNTU College of Engineering, but discontinued his studies and later joined as an Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers in Chennai. At the same time, He used to perform and participate in several musical competitions and stunned everyone with his voice and won a competition, which was judged by SP Kodanadapani. Later, SP Kodandapani became the mentor and guru of SP Balasubramaniam.
He has set a Guinness record for singing the highest number of songs in his lifetime. At an average of 930 songs per year or nearly 3 songs per day
SPB holds the record for the highest number of songs in a day. The talented singer has recorded 21 songs in 12 hours for Kannada composer Upendra Kumar.
He was personally selected by MGR to sing ‘Aayiram Nilave Vaa’ in the film ‘Adimai Penn’ with Jayalalitha and MGR himself in the lead roles. SPB later on took the position of greats like TM Soundararajan and P.B Srinivas
Apart from singing 40,000 + songs, SPB has also been a music director for 46 films in four different languages
He is one of the rare singers who has won six National Awards, and another one for his contribution over four different Indian languages.
