Kerala paid rich tributes to legendary singer S P Balasubramanyam, who died at a hospital in Chennai on Friday after undergoing treatment for COVID-19. Governor, Arif Mohammed Khan in a tweet said Balasubramanyam as a musician, composer and actor in five languages, enthralled the national audience, immortalising the role of Music as universal language of mankind.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described the singer’s passing away as an”irreparable loss” to Indian music. “I express my heartfelt condolences,”Vijayan said in a message.

Keralites consider SPB as one of “our own” and not as someone from outside the state,the CM said adding his memories will always remain with us through his incomparable mellifluous voice and majestic singing. There is no one who does not enjoy the song “Sankara…

Naadasareera” from the movie’Sankarabharanam’. His voice, suffused with emotion, was marked in the minds of listeners and later he sung thousands of songs in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

His songs had his signature style,the marxist veteran said. “Deeply saddened to learn of the passing away of Musician S P Balasubrahmanyam.

SPB was an inimitable talent who transcended boundaries and genres with his music. His demise is a great loss to our cultural life. Our deepest sympathies to the bereaved family,” Vijayan tweeted. The 74-year-old singer, who had been undergoing treatment for COVID-19 since last month, had recovered from the infection, but suffered cardio respiratory arrest and passed away this afternoon in Chennai.

State CultureAffairs minister A K Balan said SPB sang in 16 Indian languages and recorded 40,000 songs. On a single day, he has recorded 21 songs, which is unparalleled.

Malayalees were immensely fond of him, the minister said in a statement. Among his superhit Malayalam songs was “Ee Kadalum Mara Kadalum..” from the 1969 film “Kadalpalam” , while his last song in Malayalam was for the film “Kinar” in 2018.

The state government had in 2015 honoured the veteran singer with Harivarasanam award in recognition for his contribution to propagate the spirit of secularism, equanimity and universalbrotherhood of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala through his songs..