Vijay TV's Super Singer (TV series)

Vijay TV's Super Singer

Vijay TV Super Singer logo
Genre Reality
Presented by various
Judges various
Country of origin India
Original language(s) Tamil
No. of seasons 4
Production
Location(s) Tamil Nadu, India
Running time 1 hour
Release
Original network STAR Vijay
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Original release 2006 – Present

Vijay TV's Super Singer is a reality television-music competition series telecast on the Indian Tamil language TV channel, STAR Vijay (also known as Vijay TV). Originally airing as Airtel Super Singer in April 2006, the TV series has since adapted into various high level music competitions on Vijay TV, including Airtel Super Singer, Airtel Super Singer Junior, Airtel Super Singer T20, and Super Singer Celebrity Season.

Airtel Super Singer season 1 (2006)

Main article: Airtel Super Singer 1

The first season premiered on 28 April 2006, with a series of episodes which telecast auditions for the show.[1] Auditions were held across the state of Tamil Nadu in the cities of Coimbatore, Chennai, and Madurai. Performances by auditioning contestants were judged by singers S. P. Sailaja, Jency, Malaysia Vasudevan, Sirkazhi Sivachidambaram, Mahathi, and music director D. Imman.[2]

The show was hosted by playback singer Chinmayi. Later stages of the competition were held at a specially designed studio set, and performances were judged by a panel of permanent judges consisting of playback singers Anuradha Sriram, Srinivas, and Unnikrishnan.[1] Contestants were eliminated during the competition, and finalists received special training from voice expert Ananth Vaidyanathan in the final stages of the competition.

Season 1 title winner Nikhil Mathew was formally introduced as a playback singer after he sang the song "Enadhuyire" in the Tamil film Bheema for music director, Harris Jayaraj.[3][4] Season 1 runner up and viewer's choice, Anitha V. (now known as Anitha Karthikeyan) was formally introduced as a playback singer after she sang the song "Vaada Vaada" in the Tamil film Marudhamalai for music director D. Imman.[3][5]

Airtel Super Singer Junior season 1 (2007)

The success of Airtel Super Singer 2006 led to another show for younger talent, Airtel Super Singer Junior in 2007.[6] The show promised its winner not only recognition from acclaimed names in the music industry, but also a prize of Rs.5 lakhs.[6]

The show was aired on Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00pm, and compered by playback singer Chinmayi. Contestant Krishnamoorthy was announced as the title winner and contestant Vignesh was announced as the runner up. Other finalists included Saicharan and Aparna, while contestants eliminated in earlier stages of the show included Balasarangan, Dhanyashree, and Roshan.

Airtel Super Singer Junior 2 (15 July 2009 – 8 July 2010)

The success of the debut season of the show led to the return of another season of the show. The first episode of the season premiered on 15 July 2009, and episodes were telecast on Vijay TV between Monday to Thursday each week at 9:00pm.[7][8] Children from the age of 6 years to the age of 14 years were permitted to audition to showcase their talent on Vijay TV's platform.[7] Apart from gaining recognition from acclaimed names of the music industry and being a child singing icon, the show initially promised that its winner would be honored with Rs.25 lakhs in cash prize money.[7] Later, the hosts in each episode of the top 25 performance rounds announced that the winner would win a Villa in Anugraha Satellite Town worth Rs.25 lakhs from its season 2 sponsor, Navashakthi Township and Developers.

Following playback singer Chinmayi's decision to quit hosting the serie earlier in the year,[9][10] various television anchors including Divyadarshini, Sivakarthikeyan, Aishwarya Prabhakar, and Uma Padmanabhan, filled in to host the show at various intervals, and playback singer turned television anchor Divya appeared regularly during the season as a replacement. Ananth Vaidyanathan returned as a voice trainer, and playback singer K. S. Chithra returned as a permanent judge of the show. Playback singers Mano, and Malgudi Subha also joined the show as permanent judges to replace Usha Uthup who quit the show.

A number of eminent playback singers and music directors appeared during the season as guest judges, including P. B. Sreenivas, P. Susheela, M. S. Viswanathan, S. Janaki, L. R. Eswari, Jency, Manikka Vinayagam, Unni Menon, Sadhana Sargam, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Suchithra, Harish Raghavendra, Madhu Balakrishnan, Sowmya, Annupamaa, Haricharan, Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy, Veeramani Raju, Charulatha Mani, Sunitha Sarathy, Ramya NSK, Srimathumitha, Shalini, Vinaya, Tippu, Mahathi, and Prashanthini. Stars from the senior version of the show also appeared as judges during the season, including former contestants Naresh Iyer, Anitha Karthikeyan, Nikhil Mathew, and Ajeesh, and permanent judges P. Unnikrishnan, Anuradha Sriram and Srinivas - the latter of whom introduced the winner, Alka Ajith, as a playback singer in the 2011 Malayalam language film, The Train.

Runner-up Shravan R. Pratap, eliminated-finalist Nithyashree, semi-finalist Srinisha, and semi-finalist Priyanka, regularly performed throughout further shows in the series.

Airtel Super Singer T20 (12 November 2012 – 31 January 2013)

The demand from viewers for former finalists in Airtel Super Singer and Airtel Super Singer Junior to compete in teams against one another led to a further adaptation of the show, Super Singer T20. The adaptation of the show was inspired by the ICC World Twenty20 cricket tournament.

Super Singer Celebrity Season (17 February 2014 – 28 March 2014)

Following season 4 of Airtel Super Singer, another adaptation of the show was introduced with Super Singer Celebrity Season.[11] This season involved a number of TV stars as participants in the show in a battle to be crowned title winner.[11]

Super Singer T20 season 2 (16 March 2015 - 30 May 2015)

The success of season of Super Singer T20 led to its second season in 2015 ahead of season 5 of Airtel Super Singer. However, mobile service provider Bharti Airtel did not return as a sponsor of the show. White Devils team won this season.

Airtel Super Singer 5 (1 June 2015 - Present)

Main article: Airtel Super Singer 5

The success of the previous seasons of the show led to the return of another season of the show, with the support of mobile provider Bharti Airtel as its sponsor.

Contestant Anand Aravindakshan was declared as the winner of the season, while contestant Fareedha was declared first runner-up. Both finalists were promised an opportunity to sing for one of the upcoming films of music director Santhosh Narayanan. Former contestant Rajaganapathy was chosen as the judge's choice scoring the highest marks, and being declared the second runner-up of the season.

The season landed in controversy as social media users accused the STAR Vijay Indian TV channel of wrongdoing.[12] Social media users expressed concern that audiences whom spent time and money to support talented youngsters were the victim of unethical practices, and criticised the channel for not being upfront about the fact that the winning contestant was already a professional playback singer - which was defended by the channel.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Indian Television Dot Com _ Vijay TV's 'Airtel Super Singer' announces 20 selected finalists from Coimbatore". IndianTelevision.com. 2006-05-03. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Winning Voices - The Hindu". The Hindu. 2006-07-15. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 U Tejonmayam (2009-02-10). "Getting the big break – The New Indian Express". New Indian Express. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Thank you for the music - The Hindu". The Hindu. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Always on song – The New Indian Express". Times of India. 2014-12-21. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Super Singer Junior Contest - The Hindu". The Hindu. 2007-01-27. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 "SUPER SINGER JUNIOR 2009 - STAR VIJAY - Indya.com". vijay.indya.com. 2009-12-26. Archived from the original on 26 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  8. ↑ "Let the music begin! - The Hindu". The Hindu. 15 May 2010. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  9. ↑ "Chinmayi wishes a normal childhood for prodigies - The Times of India". The Times of India. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  10. ↑ "WhatToNameIt: And my last day on Airtel Super Singer". Chinmayi's official website - http://www.chinmayisripada.com. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)
  11. 1 2 "TV Stars turn Super Singers – The Times of India". Times of India. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  12. 1 2 Udhav Naig (2016-03-23). "Super Singer programme lands in controversy". The Hindu. India. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
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