MUMBAI: Legendary singer Balamurali Krishna, one of the singers behind 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara', passed away in Chennai today, dated 22 November 2016. Balamurali Krishna was 86 years old.

Balamurali Krishna, the notable Indian Carnatic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, which is India's second-highest civilian honour, for his role towards Indian Art.

Born in Sankaraguptam, Madras Presidency, British India (now part of Andhra Pradesh, India) on 6 July 1930, Balamurali Krishna’s immense contribution towards Indian music is incredible. Till date, he has performed over 25,000 concerts globally, has composed over 400 compositions in several languages like Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil. Also, he had accompanied Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Kishori Amonkar, among others.

In recent times, he was extremely involved in music therapy, and he gave his authorisation to S Ram Bharati to found ‘Academy of Performing Arts and Research’ in Switzerland and was also working on music therapy. On that note, ragas like Ganapathi, Sarvashri, Mahati, Lavangi etc. are credited to him.

The entire nation is deeply saddened by the loss of maestro Sri Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna.