Legendary singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, who has been admitted to hospital since August 5 for COVID-19 treatment, passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Friday at 1.04 p.m. He is survived by his wife Savithri, daughter Pallavi and son SPB Charan.

The veteran was admitted in hospital after he had symptoms of cold and intermittent fever for a couple of days. Announcing that he tested positive for COVID-19, the veteran singer had even posted a video in which he sounded confident.

The hospital management however gave the shocking news on August 14th that from the 13th night SPB's condition suddenly deteriorated and he was moved to the ICU ward and was put on life support. Due to the efforts of the doctors and prayers of millions initiated by SPB's close friend Bharathiraja his condition saw a marked improvement and was taken off sedatives and also responded well to physiotherapy.

On September 7, he tested negative for COVID-19 but continued to be on ventilator.

However, according to the medical bulletin from the private hospital released on Thursday evening, the 74-year-old's health condition suddenly deteriorated and was in an extremely critical condition. The singer was put on maximal life support and a team of experts were closely monitoring his health condition.

Balasubrahmanyam has sung over 40,000 songs to his credit in languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi for generations of actors — from MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan. He was also the winner of six national awards.