Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam, better known as S P Balasubrahmanyam in the film industry, has been the renowned Hindi film actor Salman Khan’s singing voice in most of the actor’s initial films. Interested in music since an early age, he completed notation and learned to play different musical instruments on his own. He was born on 4 June, 1946 in Konetammapeta, Andhra Pradesh to his father who was a Harikatha performer and a theatre artist as well as a big influence on Balasubrahmanyam. Being clear about his choice of profession then, which was engineering, he got himself enrolled at JNTU College of Engineering, Anantpur.

However, since music was his true passion, he participated and won many music competitions in college. In just a few days of studying, he dropped out of college due to personal reasons.  After a break, he joined as an Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers in Chennai.

Young Balasubrahmanyam bagged his first opportunity as a playback singer with Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna (1966). After this, he got his first Tamil song “Eyarkai Ennum Illaya Kanni” in for the film Shanthi Nilaiyam (1969). He was also seen singing “Aayiram Nilavae Vaa” for M G R in the Tamil film Aadimai Penn (1969). The fresh and young voice was noticed and accepted enthusiastically.  Later that year, he was introduced to the Malayalam film industry by G Devarajan in Kadalppalam (1969).

After singing hit songs one after the other, Subrahmanyam received International fame with the film Shankarabharanam (1980). After this success, Subrahmanyam began to record more songs in Tamil. He was highly successful in the Tamil film industry from the late 1970s, and all the way through the 1980s in the Telugu film industry based on classical music. His first project in Hindi cinema was Ek Duje Ke Liye (1981), where he lent his voice to actor Kamal Haasan. The Hindi film industry took note of this singer and kept offering him work over the years. He has lent his voice to hit films like Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Saajan (1991), Roja (1992), Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Chennai Express (2013), and Lingaa (2014).

The year 1990s saw him working with some of the eminent composers like M M Keeravani, S. A. Rajkumar and Vidyasagar. However, his works with A.R.Rahman turned out to be a major success in his career. The singer received many awards and honours during his singing career. He received his 4th National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Umandu Ghumandu" from the Kannada film Ganayogi Panchakshari Gavayi (1995).

In 2013, Balasubrahmanyam sang the popular title song for Chennai Express (2013), “Nikal Na Jaaye Chennai Express” for music directior duo Vishal-Shekhar. He was the recipient of the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011.