Young singer emerges winner

Thursday, August 03, 2006

New Delhi (UNI): Delhi girl Atima will soon join the list of Delhiites having their tryst with the arclights. Atima was adjudged the winner of a singing competition held in the capital on Tuesday as part of selections for the Li'l Champs show of the Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma talent hunt programme on Zee TV. The Delhi girl emerged the winner after a stiff contest which saw twenty five students from the city perform before three judges - Aishwarya, the winner of the 'Ek Duje Ke Liye' segment of 'Sa Re Ga Ma', famous singers Shruti Puri and Kumar Jog.

The 25 children were selected after an initial shortlisting process wherein hundreds of children from the age group of seven to 14 performed before the judges at the Ahlkon Public school in Mayur Vihar on July 30. The final competition, which saw the 25 children vie for an opportunity to perform at the L'il Champs show, an endeavour by Zee to provide a platform to children across the country to showcase their singing skills before the eminent judges of the show which include noted playback singers Alka Yagnik and Abhijeet and veteran music composer Bappi Lahiri, witnessed all the children give off their best in their bid to appear for the TV show.

Though Atima won the competion, she encountered stiff competition from another Delhi girl Kriti Sharma. In fact, both Kriti and Atima had a tie in the final round, forcing the judges to organise a tie breaker where the girls were asked to sing 'Pyar tere pehli nazar ko salam' from the movie 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'. Elated at her daughter's triumph, Atima's mother said, ''She has been learning singing from the time she was nine years old. That is what I think has paid her.''

The judges said they chose Atima because of the fact that despite not being a trained singer, she was aware of the various technicalities of music. For Kriti, they said that while she had displayed tremendous enthusiasm in her singing, she lacked knowledge of the various technical aspects of music. Atima recieved praise from her closest competitor Kriti who was all admiration for the wide range that Atima displayed in her singing. On her part, Atima also heaped praise on Kriti saying, ''It is amazing that even without learning the technicalities of singing, she can sing so well.'' Atima would soon be leaving for Mumbai to perform at the Li'l Champ show.

The programme witnessed tremendous enthusiasm among the performers which came in for acclaim from the judges as well as the audience of nearly 400 school children and their parents gathered at the Shah auditorium near Kashmere Gate where the competition was held. While lauding the enthusiasm of the children participating in the competition, the judges, at the same time, advised them to lay more stress on ''riyaz'' (practice) to help them hone their singing skills. They also urged the children to draw inspiration from great singers like Lata Mangeshkar.