Jagan pitches for Bharat Ratna to SP Balasubrahmanyam

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the latter to confer Bharat Ratna to legendary singer SP Balasubrahmanyam, who passed away last Friday.

In the letter, the Chief Minister said Andhra Pradesh is fortunate for being the birthplace (Nellore) of the great music maestro and his untimely departure not only caused much distress to fans and celebrities living in India but also, has affected the international music fraternity.

He said Balasubrahmanyam’s immense popularity and the deep impact he left on the global music industry in his fifty years of legacy, can be gauged by the continuous flow of rich tributes from music aficionados all over the world.

“The unending saga of his staggering achievements go beyond music. With his unparalleled talent, SP Balasubrahmanyam has lifted compositions to sublime levels. He has sung over 40,000 tracks in his mother tongue Telugu as well as Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi. 

He won six national film awards for best male playback singer, 25 AP Nandi Awards for his work in Telugu cinema, and numerous other state awards and six Filmfare Awards (south) for best singer,” the Chief Minister said in his letter.

He pointed out that Balasubrahmanyam was honoured with the Silver Peacock medal, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

The Chief Minister said music stalwarts such as Lata Mangeshkar, Bhupen Hazarika, MS Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan, and Bhimsen Joshi were conferred the Bharat Ratna and said conferring the award to Balasubrahmanyam will be the highest recognition to his remarkable work of over five decades.