Maharashtra politicians, including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his Deputy Ajit Pawar, paid glowing tributes to celebrated playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, who died on Friday. The 74-year-old singer died at a Chennai hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19 since last month.
“Senior singer SP Balasubrahmanyam was a genius of the world of voice who proved with his mellifluous voice that music is beyond languages and regions. “Time has snatched him away from us. He is immortal in a sense the magic of his voice is left behind,” the chief minister’s office tweeted.
Pawar said the death of Balasubrahmanyam “who enriched the Indian film industry with his evergreen voice is a big shock” to the crores of fans like him. The NCP leader said that the over 40,000 songs Balasubrahmanyam sang is a “treasure trove” of Indian music.
“This treasure trove will give abundant joy to music aficionados and conjure up his memories. Heartfelt tributes to the great artist from India’s music field,” Pawar said in a statement. Revenue Minister and Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat described Balasubrahmanyam as a “talented singer” whose voice has been “inscribed on the hearts of scores of people”.
“One won’t find a music lover who does not know the name of SP Balasubrahmanyam,” Thorat said in a statement. He also praised the singer for lending his voice to songs from different languages as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.
Leader of Opposition in state Assembly and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis also took to Twitter to pay homage to Balasubrahmanyam. “Extremely saddened to hear about demise of #SPBalasubrahmanyam ji. We have lost a legendary musical genius. My heartfelt tributes to the legend. Deepest condolences to his family, friends and all the music lovers,” Fadnavis said on the micro-blogging site.
Ministers Ashok Chavan, Nawab Malik and Amit Deshmukh, NCP MP Supriya Sule and others also paid tributes to Subrahmanyam..
