Hrishikesh Subramonian- Smule Mirchi Coverstar- Top finalist

Smule in partnership with Mirchi had been giving exciting opportunities for singers on Smule to sing in front of the Bollywood industry for the past three seasons. Our featured artists found a place in a fiercely competitive past three seasons. An earlier support for the blog pages Kriti Rupasarkar, our featured artist from Tripura/ West Bengal ( Kritirupa Sarkar- A singing from the Heart) made it to the finals of the very first season. Also see an interview of Kriti’s experiences at the competition reported here.

Read the report of the Season 1 here

Smule-Mirchi – A Hot Alliance in India’s FM Radio /Film music Industry

Second season also one of the earliest featured artists and strong support and great friend to the India team Sourajit Ghosh from West Bengal found a place in the finals.Maitreyee Moon and Sourajit Ghosh – Nomination by Smule singers from West Bengal and we reported his winning here after the season 2 finals.

Read the report of the Season 2 here

Sourajit Ghosh- A Singer of Great Expressions

Story for Season 3 was also not different from the other earlier two. Hrishikesh Subramonian, an earlier featured singer on our blog pages, found his way to the final top 5 in a fiercely competitive selection process. Hrishi’s efforts and hard work to get the opportunities ever since we selected him as our featured artist is a long list of opportunities he grabbed to sing on albums and competitions in south india TV channels is nothing short of amazement. He was a top contestant on one of the most desirable platforms in South India cable channels judged by none other than Playback singer Chitra. We reported his journey on this competition as well. Please read about that here.

Hrishikesh Subramonian – A musician in making

His never ending enthusiasm and highly collaborative nature makes him an outstanding talent that we came across. What makes Hrishi an outstanding musician is his ability to take a lot of serious criticisms about his singing from mentors and go forward with efforts to improve details of his singing techniques. As you all are going to witness both Chitra and Neeti Mohan gave such great appreciation of his singing in these competitions. We are happy to bring yet another unbelievable achievement all due to his pure talent and efforts.

Here is a short report of the Season 3 competitions as told by Hrishi himself.

Hrishikesh Subramonian- Smule Mirchi Coverstar- Top finalist

Smule Mirchi Cover Star Season 3

I was selected as one among the winners for Smule Decade Rewind contest in February 2021, for the song Abhi Mujh mein kahin. Here’s the link to my entry,

https://www.smule.com/recording/sonu-nigam-abhi-mujh-mein-kahin/1991773272_3862534502

https://www.smule.com/recording/sonu-nigam-abhi-mujh-mein-kahin/1991773272_3862534502/frame/box

My experience at the finale of Mirchi Cover star season 3 was truly memorable. Even though I didn’t win the final prize, the event gave me moments of excitement and immense happiness. I never expected to get a chance to sing alongside a talented bunch of singers from across the country, in front of a judging panel consisting Neeti Mohan, Kanika Kapoor, Harshdeep Kaur, and the Meet brothers.

It all started with a call from the organizers about my selection to the top ten from the many thousands of participants. The ten contestants were then asked to put a song invite in the @MirchiCoverStar account in the Smule app, and based on our singing and the number of joins, the top 5 contestants were declared.

The Top five

The song I chose to perform for the competition was Tumhi Dekho Na, from the movie Kabhi Alvida na Kehna. It was originally sung by Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik. It was my favourite among the list of eleven songs put up by the organisers for the competition. I chose this song since It is challenging with its nature of composition that requires a balance of breath control, dynamics and singing modulations.

The final was held in February 2021 at the Orchid hotel in Mumbai. There was an additional wildcard contestant too, so there were six contestants in total to sing in front of the judges.

The finalists (including the wildcard entry, Saurabh Narsikar)

For the final, we were asked to sing one song, for a duration of 2 minutes. I was second in line, and was a bit nervous, but at the same time, determined to give my best shot.

On the stage, there was a brief chat and then the karaoke track was played. Once I finished singing, the judges gave a good round of applause. All the judges seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed my performance, and that gave me immense happiness and I felt relieved too, as I could perform well in front of them. Neeti ma’am and Harshdeep Kaur ji were both carrying at that time, and despite this, Neeti ma’am gave a standing ovation to my performance which was a heartwarming moment for me. She said that her baby too kicked with happiness!

The judges said that I have a sweet voice and good feel in my singing. They also commented that my pitching was perfect throughout, and opined that my singing has a professional quality. They also said my diction and pronunciation of the song was so perfect that they couldn’t make out that I was a non-Hindi speaker! They also mentioned that I sang the song in my own style (in a good way). Some of the above feedback can be seen from the YouTube video of the Finale.

Here’s the finale of Smule Mirchi Cover star Season 3 that happened at The Orchid, Mumbai on February 19 2021: https://youtu.be/Gnwzl6EbOog

Overall, these sweet moments far outweigh my little disappointment of not winning the title. The fact that I could give my best on stage, and the extremely positive comments from the judges gives me the strength to move forward and face bigger challenges in my musical life.

Other works/song covers:

I have been singing with friends from the band V-Bhaag for live shows at private events in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, because of the prevailing situation, no shows are happening for the past two months.

Apart from this, I got chance to sing for a few albums over the last two years:

A Malayalam devotional song, Ariyunnu Njan Akatharil Nee :

Tamil album song, Hashtag Kadhali, made by a young aspiring bunch of friends in Karur, Tamil Nadu: https://youtu.be/7qjsr7M2cfc

There are some songs yet to be released (one of them: a Malayalam album song, is slated to be ready in July this year).