Veteran Carnatic musician M Balamuralikrishna passed away in Chennai on November 22 the age of 86. The singer was native of Sankaraguptam, East Godavari District, and was born Murali Krishna. After his first concert at the age of 8, Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavatar, a distinguished Harikatha performer, who was in attendance, gave the prefix ‘Bala’, and hence he became Balamuralikrishna.

• The 86-year-old veteran was not keeping well for some time and breathed his last today at his residence in Chennai.
• A highly respected figure in the field of music, Balamuralikrishna featured in the popular national integration song Miley Sur Mera Tumhara in which he rendered Tamil lyrics.
• A crowd-puller in Carnatic music concerts, musician was also popular among Tamil audiences for his hit number Oru Naal Pothuma in the 1965 Sivaji Ganesan starrer Thiruvilayadal, a mythological film.
• He was also good at playing musical instruments like violin, viola, kanjira and mridangam.
• Balamuralikrishna started his musical career at the tender age of six and had given over 25,000 concerts worldwide.
• He had composed over 400 compositions in Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil.
• Balamuralikrishna was conferred with Padma Vibhushan in 1991 and was made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2005.