Legendary Singer SP Balasubrahmanyam Dies at 74

Celebrated Indian singer SP Balasubrahmanyam died at the age of 74 in Chennai Hospital after nearly two months of treatment, according to local media.

As the beloved singer was popularly identified, SPB had been hospitalised since August 5 after positive testing of COVID-19. About a month later, he tested negative but could not be removed from the ventilator, reports Indian broadcaster NDTV.

“SPB belongs to everyone. He will live on in his songs. My dad passed away at 1.04 pm,” SPB’s son SP Charan told reporters at MGM Healthcare in Chennai on Friday.

On Thursday, the hospital said in a medical bulletin that the condition of SPB had deteriorated in the last 24 hours and that it had received full life support.

Tributes to SPB poured on social media soon after his son announced his death.

The Eulogy posts were posted by two of Balasubrahmanyam's most frequent collaborators — Kamal Haasan and AR Rahman.

Kamal Haasan, who visited the hospital on Thursday evening, tweeted in Tamil, "It's my good fortune that I've been the shadow picture of SPB for a long time. It's going to live for 7 generations."

Rahman wrote, "Devastated."

Tributes were also shared by politicians such as HD Deve Gowda, Shiva Kumar and Khushbu Sundar and Hema Malini.

Rajinikanth's daughter Soundarya was among the first to share a tribute, writing "RIP SPB sir."

SP Balasubrahmanyam, recipient of the six National Awards, leaves behind a huge body of work spanning 40,000 songs in 16 languages. He collaborated extensively with Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman and other composers.

He sang in many films for Salman Khan in the Hindi film industry. He was an actor, creator and voice actor, too. SPB has been the recipient of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.