The ultimate search for the best voice of Tamilnadu “Airtel Super Singer” was going on through out Tamilnadu for the past few weeks starting from Coimbatore on 01 April 2006. Special arrangements were made to facilitate the contestants to record their voice in the video booth that was located on various parts of the city. The show was launched on Vijay on 28th April, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Last week featured the Coimbatore episode wherein 20 selected finalists were announced. They are A.M. Suresh, A.C. Rohini, V. Shilpa, N. Vignesh, V. Prasanna, Meera Krishnan, N. Padmavathy, S. Kuzhandhaivelu, K. Raghavendharan, Febin Pareed Pillai, M. Ramu, Vidya Venkatakrishnan, Shruthi Rajan, Kovai Balamithran. Out of which two chennai participants and Guwahati, Salem Kerala participants who have come and took part in the Coimbatore audition was selected, namely, Swathi Sridharan, R. Vijay Krishnan, Maya from Chennai, Rupankar Thakur from Guwahati, D. Shivanandhni from Salem and Shenaaz from Kerala.
It is to be mentioned that 65 years old Kovai Balamithran competed with all the youngsters and has been selected in the contest. He was very confident that he would be one among the 20 participants when he attended the audition.
The second audition was held at Chennai on 16th April and the final audition at Madurai on 23rd April. Thousands of talented singers took part in the 3 level auditions at all these places. The chennai audition episode will be aired on Vijay TV on 05 and 06 May at 8 pm.
The promotion for the programme began nearly a month ago and thousands of singers have sent in their CDs and tapes and also through mobile phone dialing an Airtel number. Besides this, the participants also registered their voice through the mobile vans, which was organized by the channel through the main parts of the city. This is was the first time a contest of this magnitude was being conducted by Vijay TV. Renowned playback singers were part of the show as the judges at the auditions. Starting with Malaysia Vasudevan, Mahati, SP. Shailaja, Malathi, Music director Iman, Dr. Sirkazhi Sivachidambaram and Jensi were judges for this ultimate voice hunt show. Popular singer Chinmayi would anchor the show.
The selected 60 participants (20 from each zone) will undergo various rounds of tests in Chennai at a specially created set. The main juries of judges are Srinivas, Anuradha Sriram and Unni Krishnan who would have the toughest task of eliminating the talented 60 singers. Each zonal participant is going to be put to test and the number will be brought down to 30, the shooting of this will happen in the next few days. Airtel Super singer airs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm on Vijay TV.
Winding up the contest, the channel announced the selection of Shifa, a 21-year old dentist from Chennai, as the winner. The 20 shortlisted contestants for the final round went through varied competitions based on Tamil traditions, marketing, personality, cooking, martial arts, body language and oratory in the VGP Resorts, Chennai.