Legendary playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam passed away at a private hospital at around 1.04 PM in Chennai on Friday. He was 74.

Balasubrahmanyam was hospitalised in August at MGM Healthcare after being detected with COVID-19 positive and reportedly did well initially, but he took a turn for the worse, and was put on a ventilator and ECMO support.

He was tested negative for COVID-19 on September 7 but continued to be on ventilator.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter who are both playback singers.

Popularly known as SPB, Balasubrahmanyam made his singing début in 1966 with Telugu movie Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. He has sung over 40,000 songs in as many as 16 languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi.