S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

Infobox musical artist
Name = S.P. Balasubrahmanyam
S.P.B.


Img_capt =
Img_size = 120
Background = solo_singer
Born = Birth date and age|1946|6|4|mf=y
Died =
Origin = flagicon|India Andhra Pradesh
Genre = playback singing
Occupation = singer, music director
Years_active = 1966 – present
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.spbindia.com/ Official website]
Current_members =
Past_members =

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, (Telugu: శ్రీపతి పండితారధ్య్యుల బాల సుబ్రమణ్యం, Kannada: ಎಸ್ ಪಿ ಬಾಲಸುಬ್ರಮಣ್ಯಂ, Tamil:எஸ் பி பி பாலசுப்பிரமணியம்); is a prolific Indian singer. He is also known as S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S.P.B. and Baalu in the media.

Early life

He was born into an orthodox family on June 4, 1946 in Konetammapeta near Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. He is the second son in a family of three sons and five daughters. His father S. P. Sambamurthy was a well-known exponent of Harikatha and his sister S.P. Sailaja is a former actress-singer in Telugu. He has two children - Pallavi and S. P. B. Charan

Early days

Balu took to singing as a hobby during his childhood. He developed an interest in music very early in his life, and had studied notations and learnt to play instruments such as harmonium and flute on his own while listening to his father. His father wanted Balu to become an engineer; this brought him to Ananthpur, where he enrolled for the AMIE course in JNTU. Meanwhile, he also pursued his hobby and won awards at many singing competitions. There he was identified as a good singer in annual college programmes where he use to sing. Some friends recommended that he sing in Madras and provided him with referrals.

In 1964, a Madras-based Telugu Cultural Organisation, organised a music competition for amateur singers. Balu won the first prize, and that proved a turning point in his life. Music director SP Kodandapani took him under his wing. Offers then poured in from Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam movies.

Band

Before he became a full fledged cinema singer, SPB was the leader of a light music troupe that comprising
*Anirutta, who was working in Corporation and was the harmonium artist
*Ilaiyaraaja who joined the group as Guitarist and then moved over to harmonium after Anirutta became busy in his regular job
*Baskar, Ilaiyaraaja's brother who was in charge of Percussion
*Gangai Amaran another brother of Ilaiyaraaja who was the Guitarist after Ilaiyaraaja moved over to Harmonium [Dinathanthi, Nellai Edition, Page 11 dated Aug 11,2006]

Career

inger

Balasubrahmanyam made his debut in film music as a singer in Dec 15,1966 with "Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna", a film scored by his mentor Kodandapani. He has sung more than 39,000 songs [ [http://www.spbala.com Welcome to S.P.Balasubrahmanyam (playback singer, producer, actor, music director) home page ] ] since in more than 5 different Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam. However, he has sung most of his songs in Telugu and in Tamil. He holds the world record in the Guinness for having sung the most number of song recordings by any singer (the record for a female singer is held by Lata Mangeshkar).

A gifted singer, he is highly regarded for his incredible vocal range, deep rich voice, and mastery of style, technique and control. These qualities allowed him expression across various genres of Indian music, and he has been highly sought after by many of India's film music composers. His approach to singing is methodical; he perseveres to understand the full meaning of the songs that he sings (many of which are very poetic) and the settings in which these songs are couched in order to most effectively match their requirements with his vocal delivery.S.P.B., though was very young, started singing for many different language films. As he became very busy, at times he used to sing even 17 songs in 12 hours at the recording theatre. He has also sung in Sanskrit and some regard his pronunciation of this language to be very good. Almost most of the introduction songs in Rajinkanth film is sung by SPB only. This trend was followed even in Chandra mukhi and Sivaji. From Annamalai to Sivaji except movies like Ejjaman,Baba and Kuselan every intoduction song was sung by SPB only.

He has performed both the popular and classical music of India. For example, the songs he performed in the films "Sankarabharanam", "Sagara Sangamam", "Rudra Veena" were based on Carnatic classical music, and the song "Umandu Ghumandu" in the movie "Ganayogi Panchakshari Gavayi" was based on Hindustani classical music.

SPB virtually monopolised playback singing for more than 30 years in the Telugu, Kannada and Tamil cinema. His contemporary Dr. K.J.Yesudas monopolised the Malayalam music industry. SPB sang only a few songs in Malayalam. Although Yesudas' voice was regarded more suitable for sad songs in Tamil, SPB has also sung some evergreen sad songs in Tamil such as 'Naanum unthen uravai','Nenjukkulle' and 'Kuyilappudichu'. He hosts a popular TV show in Telugu called "Paadutha Theeyaga" on E-TV, "Paadalani Undi" on MAA-TV , and a kannada show "Ede Thumbi Haaduvenu" on 'E-TV Kannada' and Tamil show 'Ennodu Paattu Paadungal' on JAYA-TV.His recent achievement is Pandurangadu, a mythological cum historical movie in telugu releasing in May 2008.

Awards and titles

* The "Kalaimamani" by Tamil Nadu Government in 1981
* Tamil Nadu Government Award - received 3 times
* Film Fans' Association (Madras) Award (oldest association in the country) - received 20 times

Other awards

* September 1, 2002 Life time Achievement Award "Play back King", conferred during TVS Victor Aalaapana Music Awards function for the years 2001 & 2002, at Hyderabad
* August 5, 2002 "Dr. Bezawada Gopala Reddy Award", given during a function in Nellore
* April 7, 2002 Delhi Telugu Academy's 'Rashtriya Vikas Shiromani Award (Life time)' in 2002 on the occasion of 'Ugadi 2002', held in New Delhi
* 2002 Swaralaya-Kairali-Yesudas award
* 2001 Sangeeta Ganga award
* 2006 "Raja-Lakshmi Award" from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai
* 2006 "Best Playback Singer" from Vijay TV, Reliance Mobile Vijay awards
* Mia Tansen Award Sur Singar Sanjad (Bombay) for best classical rendition of a song from 'Tere Payal Mere Geeth' composed by Naushad Sab
* Innumerable Awards from Magazines & Associations fostering films
* Basavashree Awrd -2007 - Karnataka Government

Film Fare Awards

* Mozhi - 2007 - Tamil
* Maine Pyar Kiya - 1989 - Hindi

Film Fare Nominations ( Hindi films )

* Ek Duje keliye - 1981

Achievements

* Has recorded over 38,000 plus songs in a span of 40 years^{(citation needed)}, which include film songs and devotional numbers recorded by various recording companies of the country. It's a world record which will be soon entering into the Guinness Book of World Records^{(citation needed)}
* Has recorded 21 songs in Kannada for the composer Upendra Kumar in Bangalore from 9.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. on February 8, 1981 which is a record^{(citation needed)}.
* Has recorded 19 songs in Tamil in a day, and 16 songs in Hindi in a day, which is a notable achievement^{(citation needed)}.

SPB 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". Recently, 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. Mansvini was the winner of the program^{(citation needed)}. He is now starting his preparation for another mega show in Telugu named 'Sunaadha Vinodhini' on Bhakthi Channel, where he will be exploring more into the devotional side^{(citation needed)}.

Dubbing artist

He has also given voice for various artists like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Salman Khan, Bhagyaraj, Mohan, Girish Karnad, Gemini Ganesh, Nagesh, Karthik, Raghuvaran, Vinodkumar etc.anand babu. SP.Balasubramanyam was the default dubbing artist for Kamal Hasan's Telugu movies, dubbed from Tamil.

Actor

He has been acting for over twenty years as a support artist in a wide range of roles.

He has also acted in two serials in Tamil
*Nadhi Enge Pogiradhu (which also had actress Roja)
*Jannal(also had actress Lakshmi)

Music director

Trivia

Besides playback singing, Balasubramaniam is also the chairman of Kodandapani Audio Labs, Chennai.

External links

* [http://www.centralmusiq.com/singer-by-listings.php?singer=S.P.Balasubramaniam List of Tamil Songs by the Top Singer S.P.Balasubramaniam]
* [http://www.myspb.blogspot.com/ Tamil Onling Songs Posted by Pep Sunder and Mr.Covai Ravee]
* [http://www.spbindia.blogspot.com/ - Tamil Online Songs in English Vertion -Poated by Mr.Pep Sunder, Bostton, USA , Mr.Dasarathi and Covai Ravee.]
* [http://www.spbdevo.blogspot.com - Dr.SPB Tamil Devotional Songs - Poated by Covai Ravee]
* [http://www.spbkural.blogspot.com - Dr.SPB Tamil Thirukurall songs - Poated by Covai Ravee]
* [http://spbfansvoice.blogspot.com/ - Dr.SPB Fans Voice blog - Posted by Mr.Pep Sunder and Mr.Covai Ravee]
* [http://zakaas4u.multiply.com/ - Dr. SPB Amazing Hindi Collections and Details - Posted by Mr.Vikas Kamble, Mumbai]
* [http://myyespeebee.blogspot.com/ - Dr. SPB Telugu, Kannada Play Lists - Posted by Covai Ravee]

References