S P Balasubrahamnyam was born in Nellore on June 4, 1946. His father was a theatre actor and a Harikatha artist – a traditional form of storytelling in South India. S P Balasubrahmanyam made his playback debut in 1966 Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna.
In just a few years, SPB became the most in-demand artist in the south film industry, singing in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam and often recording multiple songs in a single day. By 1970, he had sung for the leading film stars of the era – MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan.
Two actors had the distinction of having SPB be their singing voice in many, possibly most, films – Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. S P Balasubrahmanyam also worked closely with many composers but none more so than Ilaiyaraaja, with whom he shared an association before either became a professional musician, and with A R Rahman, whose hit debut soundtrack for Roja had three songs sung by SPB – the first of many to follow.
Here are some interesting facts about S P Balasubrahamnyam.
1. He has recorded over 40000 songs in 16 Indian languages. It’s a world record which will be soon entering into the Guinness Book of World Records.
2. He intended to be an engineer but had a fall-out due to a bout of typhoid.
3. Laxmikant-Pyarelal didn’t want him to render the songs of Ek Duje Ke Liye, but he was brought in by K. Balachander (with a good argument – the lead actor portrayed a non-Hindi speaking Tamilian). This hit propelled him to super-stardom.
4. He has also acted in several movies in full-fledged protagonist roles or in cameo roles. And is also an anchor for a Telugu TV programme by name “Paaduthaa Theeyaga”. On Maa TV, he hosted a children’s singing show called ‘Paadalanivundhi’, which gained a lot of popularity and brought talent from all over Andhra Pradesh.
5. He has garnered six National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer for his works in four different languages; Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi; 25 Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards for his works towards Telugu cinema, numerous other state awards from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
6. He came to international prominence with the 1980 film Sankarabharanam, which won him his first National Award as a singer.
7. His biggest singing idol was Mohammed Rafi.
8. SPB once recorded 21 songs in a span of 12 hours for Kannada composer Upendra Kumar.
9. In addition, he garnered the Bollywood Filmfare Award, and six Filmfare Awards South.
10. In 2012, he received the state NTR National Award for his contributions to Indian cinema.
11. In 2016, He was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year consisting of a Silver Peacock Medal.
12. He is a recipient of civilian awards such as Padma Shri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the Government of India.
