Super Singer Junior – Ithu Thamizhagathin Chellakuralukkana Thedal (the search for the sweet voice of Tamil Nadu) – is a reality TV show since February 2007 hosted by Vijay TV, a popular Tamil channel of the Star Network, and sponsored by Bharti Airtel. It is a singing talent hunt for the children of age group 6–15. This is the junior version of the Airtel Super Singer show, which premiered on 28 April 2006. Auditions are held in various parts of Tamil Nadu, India. The show attracts many kids from all over the state and rigorous multi-level selection procedures are done in order to select the contestants for the competition.
Airtel Super Singer Junior Airtel Super Singer Junior Season 1, the first season of the Airtel Super Singer Junior show, premiered on February 9, 2007 and was hosted by Chinmayi. The Grand Finale premiered on 13 July 2007. Episodes were telecasted on Star Vijay between Fridays to Sundays. Out of the many kids who auditioned for the show, 25 were selected to go on to the stage show, which consisted of a variety of interesting rounds. The judges at the studio were K.S. Chithra and Usha Uthup. Krishnamoorthy emerged the winner after a hard-fought finals with an equally brilliant Vignesh, who had an amazing flavor for folk. The other finalists were Saicharan and Aparna Rajagopalan (who won against Madhumitha Shankar in the wild card round) who also gave a very tough competition.
After the show's conclusion, finalist Saicharan and semi-finalist Madhumitha Shankar went onto compete in seasons 3 and 4 of the senior version of the show. Saicharan was subsequently crowned winner of Airtel Super Singer 3 (2010 - 2011) and chosen by music directors A. R. Rahman and D. Imman to sing in the films Godfather, Manam Kothi Paravai, and Saattai.
Airtel Super Singer Junior Season 2
The first episode of season 2 premiered on 21 June 2009, and episodes were telecast on Vijay TV between Monday to Thursday. 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. 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. 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 Vijay TV's Super Singer series earlier in the year, various television anchors including Divyadarshini, Sivakarthikeyan, Aishwarya Prabhakar, and Uma Padmanabhan, filled in to host the show at various intervals, and playback singer Divya appeared fairly 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.
Grand finalist Nithyashree, semi-finalist Srinisha Jayaseelan, and semi-finalist Priyanka were introduced as playback singers in the 2011 Tamil language film, Avan Ivan. Runner-up Shravan R. Pratap was introduced as a playback singer in the 2011 Tamil language film, Paasakaara Nanbargal. These four individualsalso regularly performed throughout Vijay TV's Super Singer series. Nithyashree was later crowned runner-up in Indian Idol Junior (season 2), a reality TV singing competition that is being broadcast on the Hindi language Indian TV channel, Sony TV.
Airtel Super Singer Junior Season 3
The first episode of the season premiered on 17 October 2011, and episodes were telecast on Vijay TV between Monday to Friday. Children from the age of 6 years to the age of 14 years were permitted to audition to showcase their talent. Apart from gaining recognition from acclaimed names of the music industry and being a child singing icon, the show promised that its winner would be honored with a 3-bedroom townhouse worth Rs.60 lakhs from its season 3 sponsor, Arun Excello Home Pvt Ltd.
Auditions took place in Chennai, Coimbatore, and Trichy. Auditions for season 3 were judged by prominent playback singers and vocalists, including Nithyasree Mahadevan, S. P. Sailaja, Manikka Vinayagam, Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy, S. Sowmya, and Mahathi. All audition rounds were hosted by actresses Kalyani and Ramya.
The main competition performance rounds were hosted by Makapa Anand, Kalyani Nair, and Bhavana Balakrishnan. Playback singers K.S. Chithra, Mano and Malgudi Subha returned as permanent judges, and Ananth Vaidyanathan returned as permanent voice trainer.
Special Awards (season 3) Special awards have been given to the top three singers and the wild card entrants. Contestant ID Contestant Name Award SSJ 01 Jeyanth Most Energetic Singer SSJ 02 Rakshitha Best Western Singer SSJ 03 Anjana The Cutest Singer SSJ 04 Pragathy Guruprasad Best Classical Singer SSJ 05 Aajeedh Khalique Most Stylish Singer SSJ 06 Anu Anand Most Expressive Singer SSJ 07 Sukanya Most Creative Singer SSJ 08 Akileswaran Best Entertainer SSJ 09 Yazhini Best Melody Singer SSJ 10 Gowtham The Soulful Singer SSJ 11 Rajaganapathy Best Comeback SSJ 12 Sephy Best Performer SSJ 13 Malavika Most Progressive Singer
Grand final contestants (season 3) Finalists selected by permanent judges SSJ07 Sukanya SSJ04 Pragathi Guruprasad SSJ10 Goutham
Finalists selected by public vote during wild card round SSJ05 Aajeedh Khalique SSJ09 Yazhini
The Grand finale premiered on 26 October 2012, evening at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium live. A.R. Rahman was the special guest here among all the usual judges. The results were announced by A. R. Rahman and the title winner of Airtel Super Singer Junior 3 was Aajeedh Khalique and the first runner up was Pragathy Guruprasad. Round Pragathi Guruprasad Aajeedh Khalique Sukanya Yazhini Gowtham 1 Isaiyarasi Vande Mataram Minsaara Poove Mannavan Vandhaanadi Paatum Naane 2 Mayya Mayya Iru Pookal Anjali Anjali Chandralekha Vidu Kathaiya
Airtel Super Singer Junior Season 4 Airtel Super Singer Junior 4, the fourth season of the Airtel Super Singer Junior show, premiered on 31 March 2014. Ananth Vaidyanathan returned as a voice trainer, and playback singers, K.S. Chithra, Mano, and Malgudi Subha returned as judges. Makapa Anand, Priyanka Deshpande, and Bhavana Balakrishnan were the hosts for the fourth season. Children from the age of 6 years to the age of 14 years participated in the first leg of the auditions from across the state of Tamil Nadu. The show promised its winner a townhouse worth 70 lakh rupees from Arun Excello Temple Green Township, and 1 kilogram of gold would be presented to the runner up by NAC Jewellers. The show is hosted by Ma Ka Pa Anand and Priyanka Deshpande, and directed by "R.K".
The show was telecasted on weekdays from 9:00pm, but once the show reached wild card entry rounds, the show was telecast on weekdays from 9:30pm. The grand finale on 20 February 2015 took place in Chennai at Thangavelu Engineering College, and was telecast live from 6:00pm onwards. Following the results being revealed at the conclusion of the finale, it was also announced that contestant Jessica Judes would donate any prize she won to Ceylon Tamil orphanages, a gesture that has not been made by any other contestant throughout the history of the show. At the conclusion of the finale, Spoorthi Santosh Rao won the Airtel Super Singer Junior 4 title and Jessica Judes won her placement as runner up of Airtel Super Singer Junior 4, ahead of the third placed finalist Haripriya, and fourth placed finalists Anushya, Srisha, and Bharath.
Finals Top contestants
Spoorthi Santhosh Rao (also known as Contestant SSJ03 Spoorthi) was born 3 April 2005, and 9 years old at the time of the show. Spoorthi is from Bangalore, and did not know Tamil until 2014, which she picked up during her time on the show's studio set. She studied in Sri Aurobindo Memorial School, and received musical training in light music from Narahari Dixit, tabla from Pt. Rajgopal Kallurkar, Carnatic music from Yashasvi Subbarao, and playback singing from Parthu Nemani. Spoorthi said she auditioned for the show because she liked Pragathi, the runner-up in the previous season of the show
Spoorthi was selected as a direct finalist by the judges prior to the wildcard entry rounds, and was announced the winner of the fourth season of Airtel Super Singer Junior at the season's grand finale on 20 February 2015. As the winner, Spoorthi was awarded a Townhouse at Temple Green Township in Oragadam by the show's sponsor Arun Excello, worth 70 lakhs Indian Rupees.
Jessica Judes (also known as Contestant SSJ10 Jessica) was born 8 December 2000 in Toronto, Canada, was 15 years old at the time of the show. The show's official website listed her other nicknames as "Jess", "Jessi" and "Olivia". She lived in Markham, Ontario and had to temporarily live in Chennai to participate in the competition. At the time of the show, she was studying at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy, but her mother Mercy Judes, who had given up her job at IBM in Canada, kept Jessica away from school for a year so she could prepare for the competition. Ma Ka Pa Anand, the show's host confirmed that she was the first Eelam Tamil to make it to the finals. Olivia is appearing instead of Jessica.
Jessica Judes was selected as a finalist after receiving the highest number of votes from the public during the wild card round, and was announced as the runner-up for the fourth season of Airtel Super Singer Junior at the season's grand finale on 20 February 2015. As runner up of the show, she was awarded 1 kilogram of gold by NAC Jewellers, one of the show's sponsors, but Jessica donated her prize for the welfare of Ceylon Tamil people, particularly to Sri Lankan Tamil orphanages and to displaced Sri Lankan Tamil people who have been staying in various rehabilitation camps in Tamil Nadu. Her gesture of donating entire prize money has not been made by any other contestant throughout the history of the show. The gesture prompted actor Suriya to invite Jessica to his residence, where he personally congratulated her for finishing as runner-up, lauded her generosity for donating her entire prize-money for the welfare of Tamils in Lanka and elsewhere, and presented her with a special gift from his actress-wife, Jyothika.
K. Haripriya (HP) (also known as Contestant SSJ01 Haripriya) was born 11 April 2001, and 13 years old at the time of the show. The show's official website listed her other nickname as "Ammu" and "Kevin". She previously participated in the third season of the show, but was eliminated and did not reach the finals during that season.