Legendary singer S.P Balasubrahmanyam on Wednesday said the entire nation should be proud of the Padma Vibhushan honour to veteran playback singer K.J. Yesudas, whom he considers his "brother".

"My anna (brother), Shri Yesudas is conferred with Padma Vibhushan. Proud of you my dear brother. The entire country should feel proud of my brother," Balasubrahmanyam posted on his Facebook page.

Yesudas, 77, is a seven times National Award-winning singer and has thousands of songs to his credit across various languages.

Yesudas's musical journey began in 1961 with the Malayalam song "Jaathi bhedam matha dwesham".

His first film song was "Attention penne attention" from the 1962 Malayalam movie "Kaalpadukai".
 

In the 1970s, he forayed into Bollywood with 1976 Amol Palekar starrer "Chhoti Si Baat". Yesudas was introduced to Hindi cinema by late composer Ravindra Jain.

Apart from Malayalam and Hindi, he has also sung in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada among other languages.

He had received the Padma Shri honour in 1975 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.