My Thoughts

Posts Tagged ‘Srinivas

Airtel Super Singer season 3 auditions to begin soon

With the Airtel super singer juniors coming to a conclusion very soon, Vijay TV has announced that the Airtel Super Singer 3 would be beginning very shortly. Srinivas and Unnikrishnan made a special appearance on the juniors set couple of weeks back to announce that the auditions will begin soon. This is indeed great news for the Super Singer followers. It has been a year since Ajeesh was crowned as the super singer in 2009 and he has already lent his voice for a Yuvan Shankar Raja composition.

I am very eagerly waiting for the season to begin as I did not follow the Airtel super singer junior at all for the past one year and I feel there isn’t many talent shows as good as the super singer. I hope that we see great talent this year too.

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The week 1 of the finals completed here on Wednesday and the third day was very impressive. It was a round where the contestants had to sing classical compositions in movies. The two contestants who I was very interested in were Renu and Prasanna as they were the least trained in classical music.

It was a brilliant night with Sudha Ragunathan as the chief guest. Ravi was brilliant in this round as expected. This is his forte and he did not disappoint. The judges were all praise for him and Sudha Ragunathan said that he has a bright future in music.

Ajeesh was also brilliant. I would say that this was better than the new song round on day 2. Even though the judges were over the top and praising Ajeesh on day two, I thought that it was a okay performance. But in the classical round he was brilliant. He was rightly appreciated by the judges and the chief guest.

Ranjani was good too. Ranjani is a versatile singer and is a trained classical singer like Ravi and Ajeesh. She gave a good performance too. Sudha Ragunathan called is great and so did the judges.

Okay now for the interesting part. Before the round began I knew that the above mentioned three singers will not have any issues in this round as they are all classically trained but Renu and Prasanna were not. I was very interested to see how they would perform.

The first one to perform was Renu. She sang pretty well. Sudha Ragunathan said that her voice was sweet but she had some issues with the classical part of it. She felt that all the Sangadhi’s did not come out well. The judges too felt the same but they kept on saying that her good voice masked the errors. I have never heard more absurd comment in a talent show. The judges are there to judge a singer in comparison with the other singers in the competition. Yeah it was a commendable effort from Renu considering her little training in Classical music but that does not mean that the judges find excuses for her.

I am fed up of Srinivas saying that Renu has a good voice. I think we have heard that thousand times and I am basically fed up of that line. Anyways it was a good performance by Renu.

Next came Prasanna, who like Renu has limited classical training and he sang a not so classical song. The judges rightly criticized him but said that he is a good entertainer. Srinivas also said that it’s not easy to dramatize a song in front of an audience as Prasanna does so successfully. This time I totally agree with the judges and the chief guest that considering how the other singers performed, Prasanna’s song choice was little bit off. Anyways that ended the week 1 of the finals.

I saw few rushes of the performances from the week 2 and the notable absentee is Ranjani. It seems like the contestants are going to be paired with a playback singer. Karthik, Harini, Tippu and Mahati seemed to be the play back singers. Anyways the rushes seemed brilliant and I am really looking forward to week 2 and I hope that the competition crowns the super singer pretty soon as I think that we are nearing 1 year since the 2008 auditions began.

Well at last I got to see the finals and it was the “New Songs” round and what a great night it was. 5 finalists performed with professionals providing music around them and it was absolutely brilliant. Especially Stephen on Piano was unbelievable.

Coming back to the competition itself, the first singer of the night was Ravi and he started off with “Uyirile” (Movie Vellithirai I guess) and he was brilliant. It was one of his best for me. Expressions were so good and the way he carried the entire song was awesome. Overall it was a mind blowing performance and the judges were all praise for him.

The second singer was Ranjani who sang “Ulundhu Vithakkaiyilae” from Mudhalvan. She gave a good performance. The judges liked her performance and called it brilliant.

The third singer of the night was Ajeesh and he sang “Poi Solla” from Run and gave a good performance. I for once thought that it was okay and nothing extraordinary but the judges though gave him a standing ovation. Well I would say that in comparison to Ravi, Ajeesh’s performance was just okay. But that’s my opinion.

The next singer was Renu and her performance was ordinary last night. I don’t even remember what song she chose. She had severe breathing issues and it was very obvious that she was nervous and it did not sound that nice to me. Srinivas was honest in stating that this was not one of Renu’s best performances.

The final singer of the night was Prasanna and he sang “Piraye” (I don’t know the movie) song and gave a soulful performance. The judges were all praise for him and Sujatha took a cheap shot at him saying that he could have avoided the humming at the start. Unni though said that he liked the performance overall and Srinivas said that he could feel Prasanna’s sincerity towards music in this performance.

All in all it was a brilliant night with some great performances. I would say that Ravi’s was the best performance of the night and Renu’s was the worst. All in all looking forward to the day 3 of the finals as Ananth said that it’s going to be better.

Second day of the wild card round finished yesterday and it seems like there is very little to separate the contestants. Vijay TV’s gimmick continued yesterday as the rest of the three singers also had their admirers coming in with the gifts.

The first performer of the evening was Vijay and he sang “Athiradee” from Sivaji and it was a brilliant performance. It is a difficult song and tough to sing on stage leave alone a competition. Vijay gave a brilliant performance and rocked the stage. Vijay once again showed that he is a versatile singer and can sing any type of song with lots of energy and grace. The judges liked the performance and Srinivas called this round as Vijay’s territory.

The second singer was Santosh and like on the first night with Ranjani and Vijay, he had his admirer/supporter coming in with a gift. It was Malgudi Subha who came in and praised Santosh and gave reasons as to why she wanted to support him and handed over the gift to him. Santosh then sang “Ennadi Muniyamma” song and gave a fantastic performance. He had lots of energy in his performance and was brilliant in the way he was enjoying and performing at the same time. The judges enjoyed his performance and called it brilliant and rocking.

The third singer was Ranjani who sang “Enaatha Solvenungo” song from Sivakasi and gave a decent performance. It was a good performance and compared to the previous two singers before her I would call this as just okay and nothing great. The Judges though felt that it was brilliant and there was the honorary mention of “Porale Ponnuthayi” from Srinivas.

The next singer of the evening was Raghini who had Deepak (Jodi No1 fame) coming in and wishing her good luck and giving her a gift. Raghini sang “kaana Karunguyile” from Sethu and did a brilliant job. She is very good in this type of songs and she nailed it yesterday with another fantastic performance. It has been two consecutive good performances from Raghini this week. The judges said that it was brilliant and one of Raghini’s best till date. Unnikrishnan said that Raghini has a good future in play back singing as she has a unique voice. I like Raghini and I don’t mind her reaching the finals.

The final contestant of the night was Prasanna and he had DD (Again Jodi No1 fame) coming in and giving him a gift. Prasanna sang “Sorgam Madhuvile” and as usual gave a brilliant performance. He is always fantastic and yesterday he was just great. It seemed like he was trying not to imitate the original very hard, which threw him off at couple of places in terms of pitch but overall it was another rocking performance from Prassi. The judges liked the performance and that ended the show yesterday.

The second day was much better than the first and the singers seemed to have warmed up to the occasion. It was a brilliant night and I hope that it continues on the third day too. That’s all for now and I will be back with the review of the third day tomorrow.

So the wild card round got underway last night here and it was good. I wouldn’t call it spectacular though. It was melody round and the singers probably were just getting the feel of it. Santosh especially would have been little bit rusty as he was the one eliminated long time back.

The judges were there as usual and the hosts Malini and Yugendran started the show in their usual style. I don’t understand the need to walk through the tunnel after every break, anyways that’s me. Well the evening began with Santosh and this is the first time in Airtel Super Singer the verdict will be based on the viewer votes rather than the decision from the judges.

Santosh started the melody round with “Thendrale” song from Kadhal Desam and he gave a good performance. We can excuse him for being little rusty. The judges liked his performance and Sujatha said that she liked the innocence in his voice.

The next performer was Ranjani. Well before she could sing there was a surprise waiting for her as Mahati came in to praise Ranjani and handed over a gift to her. She said that Ranjani was her favorite contestant in the competition. I am not sure if this was genuine or Vijay TV’s way of promoting their favorite contestant. Anyways that’s beside the point. Once that was done Ranjani sang the sad version of “Porale Ponnuthayi” from Karuthamma and gave a good performance. The judges called it her best performance till date and Sujatha went one step further and said that it got tears to her eyes. I felt it was a good performance and nothing spectacular. I for sure did not have tears in my eyes.

The third performer of the day was Prasanna and my favorite contestant in the competition. He sang “Iyappa saranam Iyappa” (I am not sure which movie the song was from) song and gave a very good performance. Even though I wouldn’t call it brilliant, I wouldn’t rate it below Ranjani’s performance either. The Judges though seemed to be jealous of Prasanna’s popularity or something. It was really irritating as the judges instead of commenting on the singer’s performance, kept saying how popular he has become with the audience. This was unnecessary as every competition will throw one contestant who will be liked by the public. Anyways Prasanna gave a good performance and told the judges that he was trying to get himself out of the entertainer mould about which the judges were complaining before he got eliminated. When Prasanna said that it seemed like Unnikrishnan and Srinivas felt a little bit embarrassed.

The next performer of the night was Raghini and she sang “Siva Rathiri” from MMKR and gave a brilliant performance I thought. The judges felt the same and told that it was a brave song choice. Sujatha said that she would have found it difficult to sing such a song in concerts and praised Raghini for singing it on stage. They said it was a good performance.

The final contestant of the night was Vijay and Uma Padmanaban came to wish him and praise him for his performances in the competition like Mahati did for Ranjani. She also handed him a gift. Once the Vijay TV gimmick was over Vijay sang “Oru poyavathu sol” from Jodi and gave a decent performance. The judges felt the same and praised him for the improvisations but also said that he had some pitching problems throughout the song.

So that was that for the wild card round day one. All the singers gave a good performance on day one and I hope that the trend continues on day 2 too. I will be back with the review again as usual after day 2.

My prediction from last week came true as Raghini was eliminated yesterday by the judges to leave Ajeesh, Vijay, Ravi, Renu and Ranjani to battle in the Semi Finals. I knew it was coming in the last two weeks when Srinivas made comments about Raghini’s inability to sing normal heroine type melodies. Well she was tested on it yesterday alright and I felt she did a decent job.

Three singers sang yesterday with Harini as the chief guest and frankly Vijay was brilliant. I did not see the performance of Raghini yesterday but Ajeesh was so-so and finally the three were called on to the stage for the verdict. Harini said that all the three gave good performances and requested the judges to give them songs which they aren’t that comfortable with. Raghini was given the melody, Ajeesh a fast song and Vijay was left to decide his own genre. Well Ajeesh sang well, Vijay was brilliant and Raghini was not that bad.

Finally the judges decided to let Raghini go as they felt that she was the weak link. Well to be frank it will be hard not to agree with their decision yesterday as I felt that Ajeesh and Vijay sang better. But to think of it I am surprised why Vijay always ends up in the bottom half of the pack. He seems to be the only contestant who seems to experiment a lot and mostly pulls it off. Raghini was another contestant who experiments with her song choices. We have Ravi who if forced sings different, same in the case of Ranjani again sings different only when the round demands. Renu doesn’t experiment even if the round demands but the judges like her so it doesn’t matter what she sings. Ajeesh again like Ranjani and Ravi will sing different if the round demands.

Well so Raghini gets eliminated and two weeks in a row I lose my favorites in the competition. Last week it was Prassy and this week Rags. Well anyways someone has to go. Raghini took the decision very well and left gracefully much better than how she left last time around. She thanked the voice trainer Ananth Vaidyanathan for his help and support. Raghini since her return through the recall round had been brilliant and carried herself much better. She smiled more often on stage and took the judge’s comments much better than she did last time around. I feel that she has the potential to become a play back singer. Her voice is different and she has variety which clearly lacks in certain contestants in Top 5.

I wish best of luck to her in whatever she takes up in the future. I hope that she doesn’t give up singing and ends up as a playback singer.

I would like to hear thoughts from the readers and give their opinion on the current top 5 and who you think will win the Airtel Super singer. Please leave your comments. Thanks and that’s all for now, I will be back with my review of the Semi-finals next week.

It was a sad day in Airtel super singer as Prasanna was eliminated in spite of giving good performances over the 3 days. It seemed like it was already decided what they were going to do. It was like he was being punished for not having classical training and them constantly testing him in that genre to make sure he is eliminated. It’s frustrating that the same sort of tests was never done on Renu and I am almost sure that the next elimination is going to be either Raghini or Vijay.

Renu it seems has to just show up and sing to get selected and the others have to constantly sing different genre of songs to impress the judges. It’s becoming more and more obvious in the last few rounds as to whom the judge’s favorite is. It was rather sad that Prasanna was eliminated from the competition and really hats off to him for the way he dealt with the result.

He bowed away in style by singing his signature “Kuthu” song and entertained the audience for one last time in Airtel super singer. Srinivas said that Prasanna needs to train himself but can still become a play back singer by singing Kuthu songs. It was I thought an insult to the most versatile singer in the competition. If Srinivas is trying to say that only classically trained singers can survive in the industry then he is wrong. Ask SPB about it. I guess if SPB as a youngster had participated in super singer he would have been eliminated too. Prasanna is a good performer in most of the Genre and probably with experience can learn to sing classical better and can also train and become better than even the judges.

Anyways keeping my frustrations aside yesterday’s competition followed a familiar pattern, Unni Menon came as the chief guest and the remaining 4 singers performed. Renu sang “Deivam Thanda poove” song and gave an ordinary performance. She struggled with the breath and the judges said that it was a difficult song. Renu almost did justice to the song. Well if “almost” can win you a competition then people don’t have to try at all. All the contestants can choose difficult songs and give okay performances. I am sure that if any other singer had given such a performance he wouldn’t have been praised as Renu. It seems like the judges just say few negative points to keep the audience happy.

Srinivas has already started an excuse that Raghini does not have a voice to sing normal heroine sort of songs. So we can expect her to get eliminated pretty soon with that as the reason. We saw the judges started complaining about Prasanna in the last round itself to set the tone for this week’s show. Anyways I did not delve too much regarding the performances this week as it wasn’t that important.

I just want to congratulate Prasanna for an impressive journey in this competition. After being eliminated and coming back in to the competition he hardly had a bad round. He gave the viewers around the world watching the super singer many memorable moments. He was the most liked contestant in the competition and will for surely be missed. Good luck to him and I hope that he succeeds in whatever he decides to do from this point. Airtel Super singer through its bias has lost a good singer and a great entertainer.

There wasn’t much to look forward in the western round day 3 for me as it was just Ajeesh to perform in the competition. I guess it was a total boredom tactics by Vijay TV last night as most of us already guessed that there will be no elimination. They made all the singers sing again and few of them to repeat what they already sang.

As I said in the preview article Anupama finally made it to the competition as the chief guest and I guess Vijay TV did not expect just to have one contestant not spot selected. Surprisingly they started with Ajeesh, who sang an English song which was decent and everyone liked it, praised him a little bit and the chief guest said that she wanted to hear everyone sing.

Here started the total disaster for the day 3 episode. All the singers performed to make up the 45 minutes to complete the show and finally Anupama decided that Ajeesh is safe. Then there were some meaningless conversations between Srinivas and Anupama praising Ajeesh’s performance. Finally the show ended with Ajeesh joining the group again and yes there are 7 contestants left in the show for the third consecutive week.

This is just getting frustrating as after Aruna and Rohit there has been no elimination in the show. If you consider that Rohit was out only because he pulled out is even scarier. I am also getting irritated with the favoritism of the judges. It seems like Renu is one of them. The song which she sang yesterday was so bad and when we compare that performance to Raghini’s Tamil version the previous night the difference was even more visible. I am starting to wonder if Renu has to just turn up to get selected. She is monotonous, doesn’t experiment, Sings mostly P Susheela and Chitra songs and still keeps getting spot selected because the judges feel that her voice is good.

In spite of a legend like Chitra telling her to memorize the lyrics in a competition she still carries the lyrics in the hand. I think Raghini and Ranjani are far better singers than Renu at this moment. At least they try to experiment and sing different genre of songs. I have nothing against Renu but since I saw her first in the competition I would say she is the most unimproved singer of the pack.

Anyways let’s hope that at least next week we have some progress in the competition and there is some elimination. It’s almost going to be a year and we are not even close to identifying the top 3. I love the competition and hope that it goes for ever but it’s time to start the new season and finish 2008. Let’s hope the organizers get the point.

The Airtel Super Singer day 1 was impressive with all the three contestants getting spot selected. Day 2 had four contestants to perform and it was an interesting prospect with Renu and Ajeesh not being that comfortable with this genre. I wasn’t that bothered about Prasanna and Raghini as I thought that they will be very comfortable with this round.

The first performer of the evening was Ajeesh and he sang “Girlfriend” song from Boys and sounded horrible. I am not sure if he had any issues with his voice or something but it sounded horrible. He did not have any energy or enthusiasm to carry a song which was beautifully sung by Karthik in the original. It was a bad performance and the judges felt the same. He was rightly not spot selected.

The second singer of the night was Renu. She chose “Mudhal Naal Indru” song from Unnale Unnale. She gave a decent performance but I did not like the choice of song. The judges felt that Renu had chosen a safe option and a clever one. In the western round they were hoping for something different and peppy but were disappointed in that regard. Even though the song choice did not impress the judges at least Srinivas and Unni, Renu was spot selected.

To be frank I am just fed up with Renu and the bias the judges have towards her. I understand that she has the best voice among the female contestants but still her song selections have been one dimensional. She does not take any risks and overall I would rate her below Raghini. Anyways that’s my opinion. I was hoping that the judges would anyways make her sing on the final day so that she can actually sing a proper western song. The only time in this competition she sang something different was “Vaa Vaa pakkam Vaa” song.

The third contestant of the night was Prasanna. He chose “Something Something” song from “Something Something Unakkum Ennakum” movie. He did a fantastic job. There was lots of energy and spirit in his performance and the judges liked his performance. It was a great effort by Prasanna after being in the verge of elimination last round. He was rightly spot selected.

The final contestant of the day was Raghini. She sang “Unakenna Naan” song from Kadhalil Vizhundaen movie. It was a brilliant performance I thought. It was fantastic and she did a great job. I am growing to like this smiling version of Raghini. She is been performing brilliantly since her return. She is smiling more these days and has been giving stunning performances in the last few rounds. She was spot selected too. It’s funny that every time Srinivas has to say something good about Raghini he looks in total disbelief. Unni though seems to like Raghini and called her “Rags” yesterday after her performance. He was the one who called Prasanna “Prassi”.

So finally 7 contestants perform and just one of them not spot selected. It was unfortunate for Ajeesh. Before this round began I had singled out him and Renu to struggle and it became right in his case. I am not sure what the judges have in mind for the final day as there is no competitor to Ajeesh. He is all alone on the final day and I am sure unless he turns in a brilliant performance he will for sure get eliminated. I hope he gives a better performance tonight.

It seems like recently Malini Yugendran isn’t speaking that much in super singer. Yugendran seems to be talking a lot more. Probably due to some feedbacks received. Whatever may be the reason it happened for good. Anyways I will be back with the review of Day 3 tomorrow.

There wasn’t much to look forward in the western round day 3 for me as it was just Ajeesh to perform in the competition. I guess it was a total boredom tactics by Vijay TV last night as most of us already guessed that there will be no elimination. They made all the singers sing again and few of them to repeat what they already sang.

As I said in the preview article Anupama finally made it to the competition as the chief guest and I guess Vijay TV did not expect just to have one contestant not spot selected. Surprisingly they started with Ajeesh, who sang an English song which was decent and everyone liked it, praised him a little bit and the chief guest said that she wanted to hear everyone sing.

Here started the total disaster for the day 3 episode. All the singers performed to make up the 45 minutes to complete the show and finally Anupama decided that Ajeesh is safe. Then there were some meaningless conversations between Srinivas and Anupama praising Ajeesh’s performance. Finally the show ended with Ajeesh joining the group again and yes there are 7 contestants left in the show for the third consecutive week.

This is just getting frustrating as after Aruna and Rohit there has been no elimination in the show. If you consider that Rohit was out only because he pulled out is even scarier. I am also getting irritated with the favoritism of the judges. It seems like Renu is one of them. The song which she sang yesterday was so bad and when we compare that performance to Raghini’s Tamil version the previous night the difference was even more visible. I am starting to wonder if Renu has to just turn up to get selected. She is monotonous, doesn’t experiment, Sings mostly P Susheela and Chitra songs and still keeps getting spot selected because the judges feel that her voice is good.

In spite of a legend like Chitra telling her to memorize the lyrics in a competition she still carries the lyrics in the hand. I think Raghini and Ranjani are far better singers than Renu at this moment. At least they try to experiment and sing different genre of songs. I have nothing against Renu but since I saw her first in the competition I would say she is the most unimproved singer of the pack.

Anyways let’s hope that at least next week we have some progress in the competition and there is some elimination. It’s almost going to be a year and we are not even close to identifying the top 3. I love the competition and hope that it goes for ever but it’s time to start the new season and finish 2008. Let’s hope the organizers get the point.


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