Super Singer - Singers of the future

Yesterday was again a mediocre show. This week it has been like this. The main reason is not the singers, but the orchestra. Songs and orchestra did not go well together. Those yesteryear songs were high in vocals compared to accompanying orchestra. When LRE, TMS sang those songs, there were not much accompanying instruments while singing, only they show up brighter in the interludes. If they would left as it is, it would have sounded better. Here the 'unplugged' orchestra overpowers the singers (volume) thereby ruining the experience we get in those glorious songs. Also the way they are playing the piano, trumpet etc is way in-congruent to the original interludes and to the melody which took the soul out of those songs. Singers voices didn't come out because of that overpowering orchestration.

Singing-wise also not much to say, except LRE was too critical of Soundarya (she did pretty good), while Diwakar floundered with no energy at all. Good that Srini acknowledged Soundarya's singing. I like that. Sai Vignesh, Madhumitha and Niranjana were just ok to good, but lot of effort and hard work showed in everyone's singing.

One aspect to note here is they went free-hand when it comes to orchestrate all these songs, but when it came to Maestro's songs last week, they left it the original way of orchestration which tells the authority Maestro has over those compositions. Maestro indirectly saying, 'pichichipuduvan pichchi'

After last week's Raja fest and a reasonably competent orchestra and great guests I decided to continue watching this week's episodes as it was supposedly a rock and roll round. Of course I didn't watch each episode fully, but the biggest dampener was the live band which completely butchered some of Raja's songs. This Stephen Devassy might be a virtuoso, but he was a let down in Raja songs, getting too carried away improvising inappropriately, playing chords and runs which are totally out of place. 'Endhan kannil' was pathetic. When they have a lead guitarist (who likes to tap away to glory) and a bass guitarist occupying center stage, why can't they even reproduce the starting of 'Madai thirandhu'? Hugely underwhelmed by Stephen Devassy and co who I am seeing live for the 1st time. The trumpeter was the best of the group IMO. And I hate it when the judges praise these people after such mediocre performances. Their words completely lose value when they do that.

Anyway my pick was the guy who sang Sambo Siva Sambo

Woohoo Ponmeni Urugudhey in today's episode   . And Sonia wsa pretty damn good though the band was terrible and got undeserved praise from the judges as expected. Worse was today's performance of 'Indha minminikku kannil oru' where even the singer's improvisations were epci fail IMO. One thing - Devassy might be an accomplished pianist, but even he seems unable to get Raja's chords right most of the time  . "Is that an add9, add11, maj7, screw that I'll just play what I want to"

The one good thing about last week's show was Niranjana was finally eliminated.  Hopefully, Madhumita (lacks expression) and Deepti (lacks range) will follow suit soon.  I wonder how Sonia coped with Stephen's arrangements for Ponmeni because the chords were weird and didn't gel with the melody.  She did seem to find it difficult to sing the panikaatrile line in tune, most likely for that reason.  Now they are trying to somehow 'thukkify' Arvind to last a few more rounds.  It's not that he's a bad singer but I dislike his diction.

I sure hope Madhumita is eliminated soon. More than lacking expression I think her attempts at improvisations are tasteless. I am not against improvisations per-se when it comes to Raja songs, but I expect the improvisation to maintain the mood of the song. If you notice, when she sings 'Kaadhal rAjanga paravai' the attempt at improvisation is atrocious to put it bluntly. That line is supposed to be sung in such an airy free-flowing manner and she tries to put an incongruent carnatic touch the very first time she sings it. I don't like her diction either. And Stephen somehow succeeds in making the interlude sound like some 90s boy band filler material, especially towards the end.

I frankly did not notice all that because I switched channels just after the first line she sang:P .  There itself, the feel was wrong, way too laidback and casual.  Only Sonia gets the expression right in these kind of raunchy S Janaki songs.

Listening to it now.  She doesn't seem to have much of a vibrato (and S Janaki produces a LOT of vibrato) so maybe this is her (hilarious) way of compensating for it.  At any rate, she simply doesn't have the kind of well rounded tone you need for this song.  She seems to be resisting going legato where it is required also.  The last kaiyile sangithi was horrible.  

One thing is when the contestant has finished singing, the judges seem to be reluctant to offer constructive criticism and instead drench them in positivity and all that.  So when they get eliminated, the contestants would end up feeling cheated.  Shouldn't the judges say clearly where the contestants fell short of expectations.  If a yesteryear singer like Eshwari makes pointed criticism about the pronunciation/words, the others actually try to contradict it by applying extra sugar.  If they don't like what the older greats say, they should not call them to the program.

Ya the whole performance was irritating to me - right from the first improvisation, the annoying attempt at sounding stylish by changing her tone in 'kAdhal rAjAnga paravai' (who does she think she is, Janaki?  ) to the ridiculous en kayile sangathi.

I don't even understand the point of Sujatha and Srini being judges. The only entertaining thing about them is their goofy expressions. I am yet to hear either of them pass a truly insightful remark about anyone's weaknesses or point out where there is scope for improvement. As some sort of music education for the masses, they can at least say something about the Ragam of the song or something like SPB used to do in ennOdu pAttu padungal. The best comments have so far been from SPB and SJ in their guest episodes and Sailaja last week.

I swear, even Shreya Ghoshal or Sunidhi Chauhan appearing on Hindi competitions are stricter than these three musketeers.   They just try to put it politely and gently but they do make their points of criticism (usually very valid).  Even LRS was quite positive to the contestants, telling them they had sung well even as she told them what to correct.  What would Srini do if Asha Bhonsle was called on the show?  She doesn't hesitate to let contestants know she didn't like the performance if that's what she feels.

Saw a post on the hub that the Krishnan guy is also an "Amrita TV" alumni

So, among the top 11, they have at least 4 borrowed (poached?) from other language channels. (Sarath, Parvathy, Krishnan, Sonia).

Well, it seems Soundarya is from a prior version of Vijay TV's SS program itself. That makes it five.

What about the other six? Any similar background?

இதுக்கு எதுக்குடா திருச்சியெல்லாம் போயி ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மக்களை க்யூ நிக்க வச்சீங்க?  

Brilliant marketing by Vijay TV

BTW, that these fellows cannot even get for a whole week  pre-IR-oldies ("rock-n-roll") but had to switch to some rAsA songs mid way - with "IR-not-liker" LRE sitting as judge in addition to the existing 3 member kaLLa gumbal - showcases IR's udumbuppidi on the minds of TN public, even now

TRP'nnA chummAvA?

(Interesting to see "Anand sir" declaring his love for Sridevi & SJ )

Diwakar sang for Jaya TV in Hariyudan Naan

Drunkenmunk wrote:Diwakar sang for Jaya TV in Hariyudan Naan

சரியாப்போச்சு...

'டிவி சானல்களின் பிரமாண்டக் குரல் தேடல்'னு சொல்லீட்டுப்போகலாமே?

In any case, it seems they had successfully marketed some of their singers to the Immans of TFM world

app_engine wrote:BTW, that these fellows cannot even get for a whole week  pre-IR-oldies ("rock-n-roll") but had to switch to some rAsA songs mid way

I too initially thought the whole week was going to be rock-n-roll old songs, but was surprised when they switched in between. They are hugely dependent on Maestro's songs. They also changed the title from rock-n-roll to retro round, how funny! At-least they could not have stayed with the title and sang Raaja's rock-n-roll songs. The orchestra butchered all those wonderful songs, in the name of 'unplugged. Very below/bad performances by Diwakar, Parvathi (no life in her singing at all, last week) and Deepthi (she killed one of the most beautiful song in IFM). I think Parvathi/Deepthi are young to sing those songs, yet Sai Vignesh is doing extremely well for his age. Luckily they survived because of their previous performances. Only solace was Sonia's performance (especially on the mood, though I didn't like some of her improvisations), truly outstanding!

Sonia's performance last week (starts from 20:03)


This week they started well again with a Raaja song. I loved the song selections this week, especially the hindi ones. Let's see how it goes.

Diwakar used to sing in Kalaignar TVs Innisai Mazhai program as well. Don't really understand their catch phrase when they have got these singers from other channels. Its pretty lame.

^^^  I remember on some other show, Asha Bhonsle was a judge and she didn't like a performance of Dum Maaro Dum.  After criticising it, she proceeded to demonstrate the antara.  Absolutely flawless singing and she still had more resonance than the much younger contestant was able to produce.   Legend is THE word.

crimson king wrote: she proceeded to demonstrate

That is one difference between the mediocre Srinivas v/s accomplished singers.

Unnikrishnan and Sujatha are quite capable of demonstrating (IMO) but they too typically fail to do it. They typically throw out some biased opinions happily, often with no substantiation.

Let me quote an example.

For wife's sake, I had to watch Parvathy's massacre of 'nEtRu indha nEram' once again yesterday. (BTW, prior to the singer killing it, the orch totally crippled that classic)

That is when I noticed Sujatha showering praises on her

(The funniest thing is right after her, L R Eswari picked on one of the problems...what's more, Parvathy even got thrown into the "danger zone" for that week. If someone compares that danger zone performance with Sujatha's praises, it can be easily seen what nonsensical kind of "judge" she is).

Unnikrishnan also seems to avoid singing on the show or sings softly at a very low pitch, if at all.  I wonder if he has strained his voice and does not want to sing unless required (e.g. recording).

V_S wrote:

For example, when they were singing 'aajaa aajaa mein hoon pyar tera' at last, everyone were singing in harmony there was one voice which came from nowhere and spoiled it. Such is the quality we have, just because they don't practice at all.

Sounded like Justice Srinvasar's voice to me

 

Heard the Shivashankari performance today. I will again take this opportunity to register my absolute vexation and bemusement at these two clowns getting paid to judge the contest. As a non-gulti youth, the likelihood I have come across the song is very small. So it is reasonable that I consider it the judges' DUTY and  RESPONSIBILITY to mention the name of the music director and singer. Actually they should do that for every song and also say something about the composition, but I realise it is too much to expect of them. How I wish SPB was one of the judges - he even used to talk about the lyricist in ennOdu pAttu pAdungal.

*Grabs popcorn, takes seat* https://twitter.com/Kamaladdict7/status/401387460707356672 But seriously, cheap, TRP tactics from Vijay and VM.

What business does KObi have in ASS? Sure it's not a rumour?