Remembering the Golden Voice of S.P. Balasubramanyam on his birth anniversary.

S.P. Balasubramanyam was born on 04 June 1946 into a Telugu family in Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. He received six national awards across songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi – a feat that will be extremely difficult to replicate. He has also won 32 national awards, the Padmashri, Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan (awarded posthumously).

He has recorded more than 50 000 songs in 16 languages – another record that will be difficult to match. He still holds the record for the most number of songs recorded in one day – 28 Kannada songs in a single day, 19 songs in Tamil in one day and 16 Hindi songs in one day. No other singer in any of those three languages was able to match this achievement.

His singing career traversed 54 years and he recorded an average of two songs every day in the 54 years.

Apart from playback singer, he held many other roles – lyricist, music composer, actor, film producer, TV presenter and dubbing artist. He was a man of extraordinary talent, who frequently abused his voice capability simply to entertain his eager audiences.

However, S.P. Balasubramanyam will remain a legend for other reasons. One of them is his ability to convey emotion through a song, often better than any actor could. His voice modulation often matched the actor he was singing playback for and the combination took playback singing to a whole new level. Beyond all of this, was his simplicity, humility and childlike innocence that made him one of India’s best loved personalities.

Balu had no formal training in music, just a lifelong eagerness to learn, enjoy music and perform – and that is what made him such an unforgettable figure in the film and music worlds.

He worked with virtually every music composer of his time and enjoyed a cordial relationship with all of them. He shared a very special bond with Illaiyaraja and had some of his best loved songs under Illaiyaraja’s music.

S.P. Balasubramanyam sang playback for every major actor in Tamil cinema of his time, including MG Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Jaishankar, Muthuraman, Gemini Ganesan, Kamalhaasan, Rajinikanth, Ajithkumar, Vijay, Karthik, Prabhu, Sathyaraj and Vijayakanth.

Balu married Savithri in 1969 and they had two children – Pallavi and Charan. Both made their singing debut singing the chorus of Oh Nenje from Darling Darling Darling, Both went on to sing as adults and Charan is still actively involved in the recording industry.

Balu played numerous screen roles including lead roles in films like Keladi Kanmani and Sigaram. He was also a talented dubbing artist, usually dubbing for Kamalhaasan in the Telugu dubbed versions. He also dubbed for seven of the ten characters played by Kamalhaasan in Dasavatharam.

On 5 August 2020, Balu tested positive for Covid-19. He passed away on 25 September 2020, leaving a void in the music world that can never be filled.

Watch our 175 Golden Hits of SPB in our Special Playlist