SPB: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know about the Legend

SP Balasubrahmanyam (SPB in short) was a legendary singer, actor, and more in the Indian (particularly South Indian) movie industry.

Here are 10 facts you didn’t know about SPB:

  1. SPB belonged to a Telugu Brahmin family and was born and raised in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.
  2. SPB was admitted to, and began to study Engineering before he dropped out of college due to Typhoid.
  3. He recorded 21 songs in a single day (a world record) for the Kannada composer Upendra Kumar in 1981.
  4. Illayaraja, before becoming a music director in films, used to play harmonium and guitar in a music troupe in which SBP also sang.
  5. His first Tamil song was a duet with LR Eswari composed by MS Viswanathan for the movie ‘Hotel Ramba’. But this movie was never released.
  6. SPB was the voice behind Salman Khan’s biggest Bollywood musical hits like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, etc.
  7. SPB was also a leading dubbing artist. He gave voice to seven of the nine characters in the Telugu version of Kamal Hassan’s ‘Dasavataram’.
  8. SPB hosted the leading TV singing competition show ‘Padutha Theeyaga’ from 1996 to 2020, spanning 1100 episodes.
  9. SPB has sung over 40,000 songs in 16 languages in a career that spanned over 50-years.
  10. In May 2020, SPB along with Illayaraja released the ‘Bharat Bhoomi‘ Tamil single which was a tribute to frontline workers fighting COVID-19, of which he was affected and died later.

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4 thoughts on “SPB: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know about the Legend

  1. SG

    Great. Thanks for the info. I thought you would include song “Mannil Indha Kaadhal” from the movie Keladi Kanmani where he sang a certain verse all in one breath.

    1. Rajesh K

      That song should’ve been a huge effort, but I am not sure if that’s a record.

      Destination Infinity

  2. Pradeep

    A great singer. A good compilation of very interesting points.

    1. Rajesh K

      Ya, I think there are always many interesting things that we don’t know about people. Even if they have a Wikipedia profile!

      Destination Infinity

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