The second season of Airtel Super Singer Junior - Thamizhagathin Chellakuralukkana Thedal (the search for the sweet voice of Tamil Nadu) premiered on 22 June 2009. The music competition reality TV show was again telecast on Vijay TV, and Bharti Airtel returned to sponsor this show. Episodes were telecast between Monday and Thursday each week at 9:00 pm. Children aged 6 years to 14 showcased their singing talent. The show initially promised that its winner would receive 25 lakhs (2.5 million Rupees) in prize money, which was later changed to a villa in Anugraha Satellite Town valued at 25 lakhs by its sponsor, Navashakthi Township and Developers.
Following playback singer Chinmayi's decision to stop hosting Vijay TV's Super Singer earlier in the year, various television anchors including Dhivyadarshini (DD), Sivakarthikeyan, Aishwarya Prabhakar, and Uma Padmanabhan hosted the show at various intervals, and playback singer Dhivyadarshini (DD) 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, Sadhana Sargam, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Suchithra, Harish Raghavendra, Unni Menon, Madhu Balakrishnan, Sowmya, Pop Shalini, and Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy. Stars from the senior version of the show also appeared as judges during the season, including former contestants Naresh Iyer, Nikhil Mathew, and Ajeesh, and permanent judges P. Unnikrishnan, Anuradha Sriram and Srinivas. The winner Alka Ajith, was introduced as a playback singer in the 2011 Malayalam-language film The Train.
Grand opening The grand opening week was hosted by Malini and Yugendran. Former contestants from Airtel Super Singer 2008 and the debut season of Airtel Super Singer Junior participated in a week-long competition to promote and celebrate the opening of season 2 of the show.
Auditions
Open auditions Open auditions for the season commenced in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, according to the then-official website of the show. Contestants in each round were either spot-selected, rejected, or wait-listed until the conclusion of that round. Each of these rounds were hosted by Divyadarshini.
Main level auditions
Contestants
Alka Ajith – known in the competition as Alka, she is from Kerala. She had a repertoire of 200 songs at the start of the competition. Alka placed into the grand finale by the permanent judges and was named the winner of the competition. Shravan R. Pratap – known in the competition as Shravan, he was born to a family from Kerala. He was learning Carnatic music from Padma Chandilyan (wife of mridangamist Srimushnam V. Raja Rao) and had performed Carnatic music concerts before entering the competition. Shravan was placed into the grand finale by the permanent judges and was named runner-up, winning a car. He subsequently competed in spin-off versions of the show and other Vijay TV music competitions. Nithyashree Venkataraman – known in the competition as Nithyashree, she entered the competition at age 9. She was eliminated as a semi-finalist but immediately qualified as a wild-card contestant and re-entered the competition by popular vote and a decision of the permanent judges. Nithyashree ultimately tied for fourth place with Roshan. Shortly after the finale, she was selected to host special post-final episodes of the show. In subsequent seasons she appeared as a guest performer and backing vocalist, and competed in other Vijay TV music competitions; she won Kedi Boys Killadi Girls, was on the winning team of the first two seasons of Super Singer T20, and finished as runner-up of the second season of Indian Idol Junior. Roshan – was born to a family hailing from Kerala. He was placed into the grand finale by the permanent judges, and tied for fourth-place. He subsequently competed in spin-off versions of the show and other Vijay TV music competitions. His younger brother Robin has appeared as a contestant in Sun Singer broadcast by Sun TV and in season 1 of Airtel Super Singer Junior in 2007. Srikanth – was the youngest finalist of the season. He was initially eliminated but returned as a wildcard contestant, and the permanent judges made an exception to allow him to re-enter the competition as he appeared to be popular at the time. Srikanth was given the title "Most Popular Contestant" of the season, and finished in third place. He subsequently appeared as a competitor on Airtel Super Singer T20. Srinisha Jayaseelan – Eliminated from the competition as a semi-finalist. She later appeared as a guest performer and backing vocalist in subsequent seasons of the show, and competed in other Vijay TV music competitions. She was on the winning team of the second season of Super Singer T20. Priyanka NK – Initially eliminated from the competition as a quarter-finalist, she qualified as a wild-card contestant; viewers protested the judges' decision to eliminate her again before the finale. Nevertheless, Priyanka was recognised at the finale. She later appeared as a guest performer and backing vocalist in subsequent seasons of the show, and competed in other Vijay TV music competitions. Priyanka later went on to become a playback singer, winning the Vijay TV Best Female Singer award and Mirchi Music award. She has sung in movies for Illayaraja, AR Rahman, D Imman, G.V. Prakash and other music directors too. Shrihari – He appeared as a contestant during season 1 of the show. In season two he was eliminated from the top 11. Although he qualified as a wild-card contestant, he was eliminated again before the finale. Prasanna Sundar – was eliminated from the top 7 finalists. Sharath Rajagopalan – known as Sharath during the competition, he was eliminated from the top 9 finalists. Sahana – She received training in Carnatic music prior to entering the competition. She was eliminated from the top 10 finalists. Balasarangan – eliminated from the top 12 finalists. Ovviya – previously appeared on Jaya TV's Ragamalika series. Ovviya was eliminated from the top 13 finalists. Vishnucharan – was eliminated from the top 14 finalists. Sowmya – eliminated from the top 8 finalists. She won the best western singer award of the season, giving an outstanding performance of Mayya Maya. She later appeared on other Vijay TV music competitions. Sivaranjani – eliminated from the top 19 contestants. Sanjana – She was eliminated from the top 20 finalists.
Top 25 contestant IDs The top 25 contestants were selected from the final round of auditions.
Monisha Alka Ajith Balasarangan Sahana Manisha Prasanna Sundar Sowmya Oviya Vishnucharan Sivaranjani Nithyashree Harish Shri Prasanna Sanjana Shravan Srinisha Jayaseelan Shrihari Sharath Roshan Srikanth Priyanka Soundarya Sathyanarayanan Srinidhi Ponmozhi
Main competition
The main competition comprised a series of performance rounds on successive weeks, from 23 September 2009 to 27 May 2010, with occasional break weeks. Typically each round had four episodes telecast Monday to Thursday, with a contestant eliminated at the end of the last show that week.
Freestyle round Compere: Divya Permanent Judges: Malgudi Subha, Mano, and K. S. Chithra Performances:
This round required the top 25 contestants to perform a song of their choice.
Air dateOrderNon-contestant performerContestantSong Original artistLyricist Music directorMovie (year)23 September 2009 1 SSJ23 Sri Prasanna"Vathikuchi Pathikadhuda"S. P. BalasubrahmanyamVaaliYuvan Shankar RajaDheena (2001) 2 SSJ14 Sanjana"Oho Megam Vandhadho"S. JanakiVaaliIlaiyaraajaMouna Ragam (1986) 3 SSJ15 Shravan"Varaha Nadhikarai"Shankar MahadevanVairamuthuA. R. RahmanSangamam (1999) 4 SSJ16 Srinisha"Chittu Kuruvi"P. SusheelaKannadasanViswanathan–RamamoorthyPuthiya Paravai (1999) 5 SSJ17 Shrihari"Unakenna Mele"S. P. BalasubrahmanyamKannadasanM. S. ViswanathanSimla Special (1999) 6 SSJ18 Sharath Rajagopalan"Ennadi Meenakshi"S. P. BalasubrahmanyamVaaliIlaiyaraajaIlamai Oonjal Aadukirathu (1978)
Navarathiri special Compere: Divya Permanent judges: K. S. Chithra, Malgudi Subha, and Mano Performances:
The top 25 contestants were required to provide duet or trio performances in celebration of the Hindu festival Navarathri.
For the episodes telecast on 29 and 30 September, musical performances were of a South Indian theme. Unlike usual weeks, the contestants and guest performers sat on seats at one side of the stage so that the Bharatha Natyam students who were dancing to the song took centre stage.
In the episode telecast on 1 October, the art of dance was taught to contestants by Mansi Bhat who together with the judges and host danced on stage before the commencement of music performances. Musical performances were of a North Indian theme.
– Non-competition performance
Air dateOrderNon-contestant performer(s)Contestant 1Contestant 2Song Original artistLyricist Music directorMovie (year)29 September 2009 1 2SSJ04 SahanaSSJ21 Priyanka"Sri Ranga Ranganathanin" S. P. Balasubrahmanyam; Uma Ramanan; Shobana Vignesh Vaali Ilaiyaraaja Mahanadi (1994) 3Shweta Mohan "Alai Payudhe"Oothukkadu Venkata KaviTraditional Carnatic music composition 4 SSJ14 Sanjana SSJ15 Shravan "Kurai Ondrum Illai" M. S. Subbulakshmi Vaali Traditional Carnatic music composition Kaadhalan (1994) 5 SSJ17 Srihari SSJ23 Sathyanarayanan"Om Sivoham" Vijay Prakash VaaliIlaiyaraajaNaan Kadavul (2009) 6K. S. Chithra, Mano & Malgudi Shubha SSJ17 Srihari SSJ23 Sathyanarayanan"Janani Janani"Ilaiyaraaja, Deepan Chakravarthy & KrishnachandranIlaiyaraajaThai Moogambikai (1982)30 September 2009 1 SSJ03 Balasarangan SSJ09 Vishnuharan"Amma Endru" K. J. YesudasVaaliIlaiyaraajaMannan (1992) 2 SSJ05 Manisha SSJ24 Srinidhi SSJ10 Sivaranjani"Kaatril Varum"Hariharan (singer), Sadhana Sargam, Shreya GhoshalVaaliIlaiyaraajaOru Naal Oru Kanavu (1981) 3 SSJ07 Sowmya SSJ25 Ponmozhi"Mukundha Mukundha" Sadhana Sargam & Kamal HaasanVaaliA. R. RahmanDasavathaaram (2008) 4 SSJ02 Alka Ajith SSJ19 Roshan"Kalabham Tharaam" K. S. ChithraGireesh PuthencheryRaveendranVadakkumnathan (Malayalam language 2006)1 October 2009 1 SSJ01 Monisha SSJ18 SharathMedley of 3 songs ("Dil Mera")Mathangi Jagdish & Srinivas; VairamuthuRamesh Vinayakam; Azhagiya Theeye (2004); 2 3 SSJ08 Oviya SSJ25 Sathyanarayanan"Thandiya"Unni Menon, M. G. Sreekumar & Kavita KrishnamurthyVaali A. R. RahmanKadhalir Dhinam (1999) 4 SSJ16 Srinisha SSJ22 Soundarya"Raadhai Manadhil" K. S. Chithra, Sujatha Mohan & Sangeetha SajithVairamuthu VidyasagarSnegithiye (2000)
Koothu songs Compere: Divya Permanent judges: K. S. Chithra, Mano and Malgudi Subha Special guest judge and voice trainer for the week: Manikka Vinayagam Performances:
The 5–8 October round required the 25 contestants to perform songs of a koothu style. Those selected in the top five were safe from elimination. At the conclusion of the performances, the judges eliminated a contestant from the competition.
– Non-competition performance – Contestant spot-selected into top-five zone with immunity this week – Contestant was in the bottom three – Contestant was eliminated