The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of many prominent people, including many artists, performers and practitioners of the arts. One tragic death was of
SP Balasubrahmanyam: a man beloved in South Asian communities, but perhaps not as well-known outside of them. More popularly known as "SPB" or "Balu", he was one of India's most well-known "playback singers": a voice artist who sings the songs later mimed by actors in Bollywood films. He recorded around 40,000 songs in languages like Telugu, Tamil, English, Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi.