Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, also referred to as SPB, SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian singers of all time. He predominantly worked in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films and sang more than 50,000 songs in a total of 16 languages. In career spanning over five decades, he has won six National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer for his works in four different languages – Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi; 25 Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards for his work in Telugu cinema; and numerous other state awards from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments. In addition, he won six Filmfare Awards South and a Filmfare Award. In 2012, Balasubrahmanyam received the NTR National Award from Government of Andhra Pradesh. In 2015, he received the Harivarasanam Award from the Government of Kerala. In 2016, he was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year award at the 47th International Film Festival of India. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri (2001), Padma Bhushan (2011), and Padma Vibhushan (posthumously) (2021) from the Government of India.