Venkat Raman
Ramya Ramachandran, a Resident of Toronto, Canada won the ‘Tamil Karaoke Star 2019’ title at the finals of the contest held in Auckland on Saturday, October 12, 2019.
Her winning songs (with $1000 cash prize and a Trophy) were ‘En Mel Vizhunthal’ and ‘Kaatre En Vaasal Vanthaai’ (composed by A R Rahman respectively for Tamil films ‘May Matham’ and ‘Rhythm’), rendered as personal and judges’ choices.
Four other contestants were declared ‘Runners Up.’ They were Aswathy Sasidharan (Hamilton, New Zealand), and Thayashne Arumugam (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) who received cash awards of $250 and $150 respectively.
The other Runners Up were Shankar Narayanan (Rotorua) and Deepika Sundar (Wellington, New Zealand).
Entrants and Judges
As well as Organiser Yugendran Vasudevan (son of the popular playback singer the late Malaysia Vasudevan), the panel of judges comprised Venkat Prabhu (the son of popular lyricist, composer and singer Gangai Amaren and nephew of maestro Ilayaraja), Rajhesh Vaidhya (a talented Veena player), Devan Ekambaram (a singer, actor and composer).
Mr Vasudevan said that the Programme, produced by his company Rambutan Media Works, listed 116 participants from Australia, Canada, France, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and United States of America.
“Contestants submitted their Karaoke format singing videos by email and a panel of three judges shortlisted 16 singers from the pool of hundreds of participants. Of the 16 quarterfinalists, nine were qualified for the semi-finals and top five were selected for the finals,” he said.
Among the highlights of the event were the opening Bharata Natyam by Ramya’s sister Divya Ramachandran and her musical performance with Visashan Narayanan, son of Yugendran Vasudevan.
Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan, popular Tamil businessman Ilango Krishnamoorthy, his wife Sakthi Krishnamurthy, Auckland Tamil Association President Vai Ravindran and his wife Latha were among the Guests of Honour.
