Super Singer's magic four - The Finalists (NewsTodaynet.com)

Super Singer's magic four


Gowtham, V Anitha and Nikhil Matthew from Chennai, and Maya from Coimbatore, are the finalists for the 'Airtel Super Singer' contest being conducted by the mobile phone service provider and Vijay TV. Their names were announced yesterday by a panel of judges comprised of Unnikrishnan, Shrinivas and Anuradha Sreeram.



The winner of the contest will get an opportunity to sing for music director Harris Jayaraj, in his forthcoming venture.

'It was indeed a tough call to reject many contestants as they all gave their best. We decided on the final four after coming to a consensus,' said Unnikrishnan.

Shrinivas said that the entire process of selection was an enjoyable experience and said that the contest was the first of it's kind in Tamilnadu, while Anuradha Sreeram said, 'It was a good opportunity for the youth to showcase their singing skills and we could see that the confidence levels of each of the contestant increase with successive rounds.

Also present on the occasion was Ananth, a voice culture expert from Mumbai. He assisted the judges in assessing the contestants. 'Innate musical capacity was the chief criterion for choosing these four finalists, ' he said.

Super Singer - Details of the Finalists - IndianTelevision.com

Super Singer - Details of the Finalists


IndianTelevision.com, July 13 2006

--------

Gowtham Bharadwaj. V
Registration Number: 05
Zone: Chennai

Selected from the Chennai zone, through Airtel mobile registration, Gowtham is pursuing his degree from Guru Nanak College. Gowtham has had training in classical music for the past 5yrs from his guru Mr. K.V Ramanujam. His ambition is to become a renowned playback singer. Gowtham's strengths in music are his individualistic voice and his versatility. His talent in singing fetched him a gold coin in the 4th level of the audition i.e. the 'duet round', wherein he was spot selected for his performance.



Maya
Registration Number: 03
Zone: Coimbatore

Maya was selected from the Kovai zone through On Spot registration. A student of the Coimbatore Institute Of Technology (C.I.T), she has been learning music for the last 8 years from her guru Smt. Meera Kedarnathan & Sri K.R Kedarnathan. She has learnt to play the veena and keyboard as well. Her ambition is to become a renowned playback singer. Her strengths are her voice and versatility to sing any kind of song with a unique style of her own. Maya's performance in the duet round was much appreciated and was also awarded a gold coin. Singer Tippu who made a special appearance in the celebrated round, called Maya as his favourite singer.




Anitha .V
Registration Number: 04
Zone: Chennai

Anitha was selected from the Chennai zone through CD voice registration. She is currently working for the service industry. Anitha has had training in classical music for the last 5 years and is a student of Hindustani music for the last one year from her guru Ram Moorthy / Megna Dandekar. Anitha's ambition is to become a popular playback singer. Her strengths in singing are her uniqueness in rendering any kind of song. Her singing talent won her gold coins twice during the auditions, one in the 4th level of the audition i.e. the duet round and the other in the 5th level i.e. group round.



Nikhil Mathew
Registration Number: 09
Zone: Chennai

He was selected from the Chennai zone through CD registration. He is pursuing his Masters degree in Sathyabama College. He is being trained in music since 10yrs from his guru Veeramani. His ambition is to become a playback singer. His strengths in music are he can sing melody and classical songs. He has got spot selected and won a gold coin in the 5h level of the audition i.e. group round.

Details of the contestants competing for the Lifeline



Archana Iyer
Registration Number: 13
Zone: Chennai

An architecture student who has had training in Carnatic music for the last 8 years. Anuradha Sriram has called Archana as her favourite contestant and awarded her a gold coin in the duet round, wherein her style of rendition was much appreciated by the judges.



Harish Sivaramakrishnan
Registration Number: 14
Zone: Chennai

Harish works for a software company in Bangalore. He is passionate about singing and his talent has been much appreciated and he has had training in Carnatic music for the past 8 years.


Sowmya Mahadevan
Registration Number: 07
Zone: Chennai

Sowmya has had classical music training for the past 5 years. she is a student of Meenakshi College, Kodambakkam. Actor Simbhu who made a special appearance on the Super Singer show appreciated Sowmya for her performancein the emotive round and also awarded her a gold coin.



Nithin Raj
Registration Number: 08
Zone: Madurai

A student of Literature, Nithin Raj is truly passionate about singing and hopes to become a famous playback signer. Singing melody songs are his forte.


Vijay Krishnan
Registration Number:
Zone: Coimbatore

Vijay Krishnan is a student of the PSG college, Coimbatore. He has had Classical training for the past 5 years and has been appreciated by the judges for his style of adapting the existing song.

Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer - Finalists At a glance

Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer - At a glance

IndianTelevision.com, July 13 2006:
Vijay TV launched Airtel super singer in the month of April 2006 with the motive of finding the one unique voice out of 6.5 Crore Tamilians. The grand prize for this on going event is a golden opportunity for the winner to sing for Music Director Harris Jeyraj in his forthcoming venture.

Preliminary rounds
Auditions were conducted across the entire state of Tamilnadu targeting 3 major zones, viz., Kovai, Madurai and Chennai. The mode of entry of participants for the audition was through CD's & Cassettes, Airtel registration, and also On Spot registrations.

The judges' panel for the initial ground auditions was constituted by eminent personalities in the Music industry such as, Playback singer Malaysia Vasudevan, Playback singer S.P.Sailaja, Playback singer Jensi, Playback singer Dr. Seergazhi Siva chidambaram, Music Director D.Imman, Singer Malathi and singer Mahathi. These judges short-listed the candidates in various zones to proceed to the next level of the competitions held in Chennai

Main Auditions
The next levels of competition saw the participants going through a series of extensive rounds testing their skills in music. These levels were judged by a special panel of judges constituting playback singers Anuradha Sriram, Srinivas and Unnikrishnan, who follow the progress of the participants through their journey in Super Singer.

In the first level of auditions contestants were asked to sing their choice of songs in various genres.

In the second level they were taught a new song by the judges and were tested on their grasping abilities.

In the 3rd level they were paired up with another contestant in a duet round were they were tested on the grounds of how they adapt to a co-singer.

The 4th level was a group round where, they were tested on how they harmonize and how well they adjust to performing in a group. The special judge for this round was the evergreen singer Mrs. Vani Jayaram.

In the 5th level they were given an existing song and asked to change the emotion of the song without tampering with the tune or the lyrics. This was to see how well they improvise and bring out the emotions and feel of a song. Actior Silambarasan (Simbhu) was the special guest on the show and he gave his opinions from the filmmaker's viewpoint.

In the 6th level they were made to perform with established playback singers. The playback singers who made an appearance on the show and groomed the participants, were Sriram Parthasarathy, Pop Shalini, Tippu and Harini with whom the participants sang in the celebrity round.

The Finalist
The hunt for the Super Singer has now narrowed down to 4 finalists. Maya, Goutham, Nikhil & Anitha were short-listed by the panel of judges based on their performance in various levels.

Lifeline round
All participants who were rejected from the 5th level onwards were eligible for a second chance to re enter the competition through public voting. These contestants were given registration numbers so that viewers can also cast their votes to select their favourite contestant through SMS voting, tele-voting as well as online voting.

Along with which each judge was given a chance to bring back one contestant whom they think might have a potential but have been rejected in previous levels.2 participants with the maximum number of vote got to enter the lifeline round.

The participants who compete in the lifeline round are:

Sowmya - who has won the maximum number of votes.
Vijaykrishnan - who has won the second maximum number of votes.
Archana Iyer - chosen by Mr.Unnikrishnan for a re entry
Nitin raj - chosen by Mr.Srinivas for a re entry
Harish Sivaramakrishnan - Chosen by Mrs.Anuradha Sriram for a re entry

In all, 5 participants have been given a lifeline out of these the public would decide on the one to be sent to the finals through public voting.

One among these 5 gets the 'life- line' a chance to become the 5th finalist to perform for the grand finale. And they await their results.

Prizes
The singer who is adjudged to be the one with the unique voice gets crowned as the Super Singer and gets the golden opportunity to sing for famed music director Harris Jeyaraj. And a Maruthi swift car sponsored by Vijay TV.

The First runner up will receive a Laptop sponsored by Twice Digitale And a special prize of an E-GO Electric bike sponsored by Prithvi Motors for one of the finalists.

Apart from these the contestants who have impressed the judges with their performances in various level of the competition and got "spot selected" received a 2 gram gold coin sponsored by Shree jewellery.

Super Singer judges Harini, Tippu, Shalini, Sriram

The episodes with judges (and co-singers) Harini, Tippu, Shalini, Sriram was a little disappointing for me. Mainly for two reasons. a) Most of the performances were below par. b) the selections/rejections were not satisfactory

I thought Vijay sang well with Harini but he was rejected. He tried to have variations in the Azhagana Rakshasiye which seemed nice.

Maya was very ordinary. But she got through to the finals.

Priyadarshini was correct in her singing but the judges wanted more out of her songs and so she was rejected.

Nikhil was singing his normal self and was trying to add some extras here and there which did not seem adequate. His selection was fine as others had performed worse than him. But how he got through the earlier round (emotive skills) is a mystery. I would have preferred to see Nitin come through to this round.

The second episode with Sowmya was heartbreaking. She was singing well and she deserved to go to the next round. Just a wrong selection of a song should not be the criteria to reject her.

Anitha's singing was just ordinary and she knew she was going to be rejected. but the judges selected here.

Aruna was the only one who seemed confident and positive. But she was rejected. Sriram had dominated the duet a lot.

Gautham had some enthu in his singing and he was sejected. He is not versatile and he has got through with some ordinary singing but with excellent song selections. Pop Shalini's singing was nice and made the song enjoyable. Gautham in the finals seems unreal -- given the talents of the other singers who were rejected.

Lets see what the final has in store for these four singers -- Gautham, Anitha, Nikhil and Maya.

Maya and Anitha have my vote for the finalists!

Is Harris Jayaraj going to be in the next episode? Will all the winners and runner ups be chosen in the next episode or will this program run till August?

I think there will be some drama added with the voted out participants coming back again (I think Swathi, Sowmya, Vijay, Harish, Nitin might come back in the wild card round and there will an elimination round among them before we see the finals).

Great program, nice concept and nicely executed! Well done Vijay TV.