SP Balasubrahmanyam is no more: AR Rahman and Chithra to Shreya Ghoshal, music fraternity mourns the loss

Leaving millions of his fans in dismay, renowned playback singer of Indian cinema SP Balasubrahmanyam has passed away in Chennai on Friday afternoon due to a cardio-respiratory arrest. Initially hospitalised for testing positive for COVID-19, the health condition of the legendary personality deteriorated further in the next few weeks and he was kept on ECMO and other life support measures. Just when it looked like SPB was making steady progress towards betterment, his condition turned ‘extremely critical’ in the last 24 hours and eventually, he was declared dead at 1:04 PM.
From Prime Minister, President and Chief Ministers to business tycoons, actors and commoners, people from all walks of life in the country are grieving the death of Balasubrahmanyam and many have poured their condolences on social media. In an illustrious career spanning for over five decades, the 74-year-old has crooned over 40K songs in 15 languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada among others. Besides singing, he also succeeded as an actor, producer, music director and dubbing artist.
A horde of members from the Indian music fraternity including composers, singers and lyricists expressed shock over the sudden death of SPB and paid their tribute by sharing emoting messages. While AR Rahman termed Balu as the voice of victory, love, devotion and joy, KS Chithra said that music will never remain the same.
AR Rahman